What Is a Neurologic Symptom?

Neurologic symptoms—symptoms caused by a disorder that affects part or all of the nervous system—can vary greatly because the nervous system controls so many different body functions. Symptoms can include all forms of pain and can involve muscle function, sensation, the special senses (vision, taste, smell, and hearing), sleep, awareness (consciousness), and mental function (cognition).

The following are some relatively common neurologic symptoms:

Pain

• Back pain

• Neck pain

• Headache

• Pain along a nerve pathway (as in sciatica or shingles)

Muscle malfunction

• Weakness

• Tremor (rhythmic shaking of a body part)

• Paralysis

• Involuntary (unintended) movements (such as tics)

• Abnormalities in walking

• Clumsiness or poor coordination

• Muscle spasms

• Rigidity, stiffness, and spasticity (muscle spasms resulting from muscle stiffness)

• Slowed movements

Changes in sensation

• Numbness of the skin

• Tingling or a pins-and-needles sensation

• Increased sensitivity (hypersensitivity) to light touch

• Loss of sensation for touch, cold, heat, or pain

• Loss of position sense (knowing where parts of the body are in space)

Changes in the special senses

• Disturbances of smell and taste

• Visual hallucinations

• Partial or complete loss of vision

• Double vision

• Deafness

• Ringing or other sounds originating in the ears (tinnitus)

Other symptoms

• Vertigo

• Loss of balance

• Difficulty swallowing

• Slurred speech (dysarthria)

Sleep problems

• Difficulty falling or staying asleep

• Uncontrollable leg movements during sleep

• Falling asleep uncontrollably (as in narcolepsy) or sleeping too much

Changes in consciousness

• Fainting

• Confusion or delirium

• Seizures (ranging from brief lapses in consciousness to severe muscle contractions and jerking throughout the body)

• Coma

• Stupor

Changes in cognition (mental ability)

• Difficulty understanding language or using language to speak or write (aphasia)

• Poor memory

• Difficulty with common motor skills, such as striking a match or combing hair, despite normal strength (apraxia)

• Inability to recognize familiar objects (agnosia) or familiar faces (prosopagnosia)

• Inability to sustain concentration when doing a task

• Inability to distinguish right from left

• Inability to do simple arithmetic (acalculia)

• Difficulty understanding spatial relationships (for example, being unable to draw a clock or becoming lost driving in a familiar neighborhood)

• Dementia (dysfunction of several cognitive functions)

• Neglect of one side of the body or denial that it exists (often due to a brain injury)