DIASCHASIS , NEURO SPLIT

Diaschisis, a Greek term meaning “split throughout,” was introduced to neurology in 1914 by Monakow. This concept suggests that damage in one focal area of the brain can affect distant brain regions. Diaschisis was originally described in patients with ipsilateral paralysis following focal brain lesions (Finger et al., 2004). With the advent of brain imaging techniques, we now know that focal damage can result in large connectivity abnormalities in the brain (for review, see Carrera and Tononi, 2014). Traditionally, the concept of diaschisis was applied to acute brain injuries, as seen in head trauma or stroke. However, a similar phenomenon may occur in developmental disorders, as illustrated in recent work published in The Journal of Neuroscience (Ishii, Kubo et al., 2015).