Blocq's disease

Blocq's syndrome
Trunk sway, path deviation, arm swing
Anatomical terminology

Blocq's disease was first considered by Paul Blocq (1860–1896),[1] who described this phenomenon as the loss of memory of specialized movements causing the inability to maintain an upright posture, despite normal function of the legs in the bed. The patient is able to stand up, but as soon as the feet are on the ground, the patient cannot hold himself upright nor walk; however when lying down, the subject conserved the integrity of muscular force and the precision of movements of the lower limbs. The motivation of this study came when a fellow student Georges Marinesco (1864) and Paul published a case of parkinsonian tremor (1893) due to a tumor located in the substantia nigra.[1]

In the third paper published by Paul Blocq, he was trying to determine the neurophysiology behind this disease by relating the cerebral cortex (the decision making) and the spinal cord (the decision executer). His hypothesis was that there would exist an inhibitory influence which exerted and influenced the cortical or spinal centers for standing and walking.

  1. ^ a b Okun, M. S. and P. J. Koehler (2007). "Paul Blocq and (psychogenic) astasia abasia". Movement Disorders. 22 (10): 1373-1378.