Central facial palsy, (colloquially referred to as central seven) is a symptom or finding characterized by paralysis or paresis of the lower half of one side of the face. It usually results from damage to upper motor neurons of the facial nerve.
The facial motor nucleus has dorsal and ventral divisions that contain lower motor neurons supplying the muscles of the upper and lower face, respectively. The dorsal division receives bilateral upper motor neuron input (i.e. from both sides of the brain) while the ventral division receives only contralateral input (i.e. from the opposite side of the brain).
Thus, lesions of the corticobulbar tract between the cerebral cortex and pons and the facial motor nucleus destroy or reduce input to the ventral division, but ipsilateral input (i.e. from the same side) to the dorsal division is retained. As a result, central facial palsy is characterized by hemiparalysis or hemiparesis of the contralateral muscles of facial expression, but not the muscles of the forehead
Read more about Central Facial Palsy: Signs and Symptoms, The Motor System and Facial Patterns, Examination Techniques, Studies, Treatment
Famous quotes containing the words central, facial and/or palsy:
“But when the self speaks to the self, who is speaking?—the entombed soul, the spirit driven in, in, in to the central catacomb; the self that took the veil and left the world—a coward perhaps, yet somehow beautiful, as it flits with its lantern restlessly up and down the dark corridors.”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)
“You must call up every strength you own
And you can rip off the whole facial mask.”
—William Dewitt Snodgrass (b. 1926)
“The palsy plagues my pulses”
—Unknown. Tom o’ Bedlam’s Song (l. 37)