Apperceptive Agnosia - Location of Brain Damage

Location of Brain Damage

Each patient that suffers from apperceptive agnosia does not have brain damage in exactly the same area. However, brain damage in proximity to the occipital lobe is largely correlated with the patterns of deficit seen in apperceptive agnosics. For example patient JB suffered extensive damage to the parietal-occipital areas to the left cerebral hemisphere leading to his deficit in the ability to name distinguish between structurally similar object.

Visually presented object recognition is largely mediated by a hierarchical occipitotemporal pathway. This pathway facilitates the distinction between regions allowing the processing of the visual features of objects. In addition the occipitoparietal pathway is sometimes damaged in apperceptive agnosia patients. Damage to this region leads to impairments in localization of visual stimuli.