In neurology, pseudobulbar palsy is a clinical sign characterized by difficulties in swallowing, mastication and speaking and it usually results from a damage of upper level motoneurons that control the lower brainstem. The name is due to the fact that the symptomatology is similar to the direct involvement of cranial nerves IX-XII in the brainstem (bulbar palsy), but the pathological lesion, instead of involving the brainstem directly, is at the expenses of one of the projecting areas to the brainstem. Therefore, pseudobulbar palsy does not represent a disease itself, but a cohort of signs and symptoms that can have different neuropathological correlates.
