You've Probably Never Heard of It Quiz

Answer: Cannibalism

Kuru is a prion disease, similar to the bovine disease known as 'mad cow disease'. Kuru was first found in the Fore tribe of Papua New Guinea, and was a result of ritualistic cannibalism as part of a death ritual. The eating of brain matter can result in the ingestion of an infectious protein known as a prion.

The disease had an incubation period of 20 years. Trembling, weakness, headache, arm and leg pain, were the original symptoms. This progressed to jerking, loss of all muscle control, uncontrolled laughing and difficulty in swallowing.

There was no known cure and death followed within a year of the onset of symptoms. This disease has almost disappeared as the Fore tribe came to understand the cause and effect. In 2005, a patient died from Kuru, after a thirty year incubation period.

Answer: Minor neurological reaction involving sneezing when exposed to the sun

Photoptarmosis is commonly known as sun sneezing. This is a minor and somewhat common nerve reaction that is often caused by the exposure to bright light. It often occurs when the person walks outside and into the sun. These are usually sneezing fits involving multiple sneezes which cannot be controlled.

The actual neurological mechanism of this response is poorly understood and may have a genetic component. The greatest danger of these sneezing fits involves subjects who are driving, piloting a plane, or involved in another activity in which spatial awareness is a must.

Answer: The body transposes stimuli from one side of the body to the other

When a patient has allochiria, their brain has a problem with spatial transposition. In other words, if you pinch the patients right arm, they feel it in their left arm. It can affect hearing and vision. The patient will think that they see a car on their left while it is actually on their right, or think that a voice is coming from the opposite direction.

This disorder is usually caused by damage to the right parietal lobe.

Answer: Involuntary uttering of obscene words

Coprolalia is a symptom as opposed to a disorder or disease. It is a type of verbal tic, in which the sufferer shouts profanity. Similar symptoms include coprographia, in which the patient makes obscene pictures or writings, and copropraxia, which is the performing of obscene gestures.

These are uncontrollable tics that are seen in a variety of neurological diseases or after brain trauma. One of the most well-known disorders in which this may be seen is Tourette's syndrome. These are not common symptoms in any instance, but can be one of the most bizarre.

These symptoms are uncontrollable and medication provides little relief. There are new surgical procedures that do help coprolalia, but coprographia and copropraxia are much harder to treat.

Answer: Sleep

Narcolepsy is a neurological sleep disorder that manifests itself by uncontrollable, instantaneous bouts of sleep. These can occur at any time, anywhere. The disorder varies in severity from uncontrolled chronic lethargy and drowsiness to multiple attacks where the patient has multiple attacks of falling asleep every day. If the patient is standing, he may simply lay down on the floor, or he may suffer complete loss of all muscle control (cataplexy) and fall to the floor. Most sufferers have problems with developing any type of normal sleep pattern and those who have the more severe forms of the disorder may wear helmets to protect their heads during falls and must be closely monitored to prevent accidental injury.

This disorder can make going into public a very difficult and embarrassing act.

Answer: Ability to recognise objects

Agnosia is the inability to visually recognize familiar objects. It is a symptom of many neurological disorders including Kluver-Bucy syndrome. This debilitating disorder is caused by damage to the anterior temporal lobes of the brain. Other symptoms include a loss of fear and/or anger responses, memory loss, seizures, and dementia. Patients can also put inappropriate objects into their mouths and become hypersexual.

There is no known cure for this disorder but it is not life-threatening in itself. Treatment usually consists of drug therapy and psychological support.

Answer: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a fatal, degenerative disease of the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. The first symptom is muscle weakness. This leads to twitching and a complete inability to move or control the body. Eventually, the muscles in the chest quit working and it becomes impossible for the patient to breathe on their own.

There is often loss of the gag reflex and atrophy of the tongue. Some patients experience uncontrollable laughing or crying. There are a few medications that help slow the disease process but there is no cure.

As dementia is usually not a symptom, the patient is fully aware of what is going on. In other parts of the world this disease is known as Motor Neuron Disease.

Answer: Anyone can suffer from this disorder

Foreign Accent Syndrome is a very rare medical condition that can occur as a side effect of head trauma or stroke. It can affect men, women, and children. It is best described as a speech impediment in which the patient sounds as if they are speaking their native language with a foreign accent.

Other accompanying symptoms include poor memory, depression, and shortened attention span. There is no cure, and treatment is supportive. There have been fewer than 100 recorded cases of this unusual neurological disorder.

Answer: True

In this neurological condition the nervous symptom tricks the brain into thinking that it still feels pain, itch or other tactile feelings in a limb that is no longer part of the body. For some amputees, this disorder can last the rest of their lives after the amputation has taken place.

The exact reasons for this disorder are poorly understood and a matter of great debate in the field of neurology. Treatments include pain medication, antidepressants, anti-epileptics, massage and electrical stimulation, with varying results.

Answer: False

This is false. Status epilepticus is a medical emergency in which the brain stays in a state of persistent seizure for more than 30 minutes. It can occur in any patient who suffers from any type of epileptic or seizure disorder. Stroke or head trauma can also cause it to occur.

It is not common, and the mortality rate of this type of episode can be as high as 20%. Seizure disorders can be caused by brain damage, poison, head trauma, genetics and there are times the exact cause is unknown. Most people who are diagnosed with a seizure disorder are able to live normal lives as long as they follow their doctors orders, take their prescribed medication, and avoid anything that they know has caused a seizure in the past.

Not doing these things can cause status epilepticus.