Abstract
We reported a case of associative visual agnosia that corresponds to the original description by Lissauer (1980). A 25-year-old right-handed male developed right hemianopia, aphasia, alexia, visual agnosia, spatial inattention and amnesia following a left unilateral hemorrhage. CT scan revealed a low-density area around the inferior horn, the triangular part and the posterior horn of the lateral ventricle, and the lesion involved the subcortical white matter of the lingual, the fusiform and the parahippocampal gyri.
About 3∼4 months after onset, we examined his visual disturbances. Visual naming was severely impaired. Both tactile naming and auditory naming in response to verbal description were significantly better than visual naming. He was also unable to categorize visually presented line drawings. However, he had no difficulties in copying geometric figures. In the overlapping figures test, he was able to trace the contours of all objects smoothly. These results suggested that his visual form perception was preserved and his visual agnosia corresponded to the original description of Lissauer's associative type.
This case was not able to search sufficiently for visual space. However, we concluded that his lack in searching for visual space had little influence on visual recognition when he examined only one object. We discussed the mechanism underlying the patient's visual associative agnosia in relation to optic aphasia.
