Abstract
A pathological behavior, termed ‘forced gazing’, was seen in two patients following bilateral frontal lesions. Whenever people came into their sight, the patients were forced to gaze at their faces, specifically people's eyes, and to keep gazing until the people went out of their sight. Forced gazing was inevitably triggered and maintained, without exceptions, by the appearance of people. Suppression of the frontal inhibitory function on the parietal lobes may result in disinhibition of the parietal function so that the patients become extremely dependent on external stimuli. This phenomenon could therefore be attributed to remarkable dependency on the external environment after frontal damages, which may represent a disorder of human autonomy. Since the two patients also showed grasp reflex, instinctive grasp reaction, and compulsive manipulation of tools accompanying their forced gazing, bilateral medial frontal lesions are thought to be most responsible for this behavior. In addition, the lesions extended to the frontal eye field, which were also thought to be responsible.
