Question:medium
In Brown-Sequard syndrome, which type of sensation is lost on the same (ipsilateral) side as the cord lesion?
In Brown-Sequard syndrome, which type of sensation is lost on the same (ipsilateral) side as the cord lesion?
Show Hint
Dorsal columns cross high in the medulla, so position sense is lost on the same side as a cord hemisection.
Updated On: Jun 23, 2026
- Pain
- Touch
- Proprioception
- Temperature
Show Solution
The Correct Option is C
Solution and Explanation
Step 1: Picture a cut through one half of the spinal cord. The deficits sort themselves by where each tract crosses the midline.
Step 2: Position sense, vibration and discriminative touch travel up the posterior (dorsal) columns and stay on the entering side until they decussate high up in the medulla. Because the lesion sits below that crossing point, these modalities drop out on the side of the lesion, i.e. ipsilaterally.
Step 3: Pain and temperature behave differently. Their second-order neurons cross almost immediately in the spinal cord, so a hemisection knocks them out on the contralateral side, not the same side. That removes $Pain$ and $Temperature$ as same-side answers.
Step 4: Touch is partly carried by both pathways and is not the classic same-side loss tested here. The clean ipsilateral loss is proprioception.
\[\boxed{\text{Proprioception}}\]
Step 2: Position sense, vibration and discriminative touch travel up the posterior (dorsal) columns and stay on the entering side until they decussate high up in the medulla. Because the lesion sits below that crossing point, these modalities drop out on the side of the lesion, i.e. ipsilaterally.
Step 3: Pain and temperature behave differently. Their second-order neurons cross almost immediately in the spinal cord, so a hemisection knocks them out on the contralateral side, not the same side. That removes $Pain$ and $Temperature$ as same-side answers.
Step 4: Touch is partly carried by both pathways and is not the classic same-side loss tested here. The clean ipsilateral loss is proprioception.
\[\boxed{\text{Proprioception}}\]
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