Diagnostic performance of spectroscopic and perfusion MRI for distinction of brain tumors

To the Editor: We would like to add to the correspondence about the possibility of an auditory Anton's syndrome in the report of sudden bilateral deafness from stroke. 1 While Anton's eponymous syndrome is most closely associated with denial of blindness, in one seminal article, "About the perception of focal brain lesions by patients with cortical blindness and deafness," two of three reported cases were of denial of deafness. 2 We saw a patient who, like those described by Anton, did not respond to voice or loud noises but insisted he was not deaf. As with Anton's original patients, communication was accomplished by writing down queries to which the patient would respond verbally. Our patient was a 72-year-old man with alcohol-associated dementia who was brought into the emergency room for odd behavior. He confabulated reasons why he could not hear (e.g., "the radio's on too loud," "the fan is on"). He was cheerful and engaging and told a consistent and detailed story of his migration from South Carolina to New York City decades prior, but gave vague and confabulatory answers to questions about the recent past.