What is Visual Agnosia?

Visual agnosia is a health condition in which a person can see an object in front of him, but does not understand what the object is or what is used for. In other words, the person lacks the recognition of objects. People affected by this condition do not have any structural or neurological damage to the eye, nor there is no erosion of their intelligence that would correspond to the failure of object recognition. The basic problem with this condition lies in the processing of visual information in the brain. There are two types of visual agnosia, apperaceptive agnosie and associative agnosia. For example, if shoes and gloves are placed in front of someone with apperaceptive agnosia, the patient would not be able to identify any object. He would also not be able to perceive that these two objects are very different. People with this condition cannot copy a picture, play the matching game or even complete a comparative test. This form of Agnosia is most often caused by anoxia or prolonged oxygen poisoning, stroke or carbon monoxide poisoning.

There are three parts for associative visual agnosii. First, people with this type of agnosie can perceive the object by means of touch or will understand the object if they are described. In other words, they can identify an object by means of memory or other sense than vision.

Second, people with this condition can coincide as objects, but do not understand the function of objects or even know their names. Finally, the patient with Associative Agnosia retains enough visual memory so that he can copy the image she has seen. The causes of associative visual agnosia are very variable, with lesions in many different areas, which results in this condition.

Visual Agnosia was brought in front of the public in the book Oliver Sacks a man who was wrong with his wife for his hat . Part of this book describes men with visual agnosia who is in his professional and personal life highly functional despite his NESRecognition of objects. This shows that people suffering from this condition are often able to compensate for other senses, especially their feeling of touch and smell. Obviously, the recognition of objects is a complex function that relies strongly on the eyes and brain, but must also require the entry of all other senses to make the brain a final decision. Since 2011, there is no therapy to cure this suffering.