Identification of fragmented pictures in patients with brain damage

Identification of fragmented pictures was investigated using line drawings (Snodgrass, Smith, Feenan, & Corwin, 1987) in 236 healthy participants and 43 patients with unilateral lesions of the right or left hemisphere. Perceptual closure (the integration of fragments into a meaningful perceptual whole) depended on the amount of physical visual information, the age of the patient, and the location of the lesion. Patients with right-side lesions showed more impairment than those with left-side lesions, confirming the importance of the right hemisphere in perceptual closure tasks. Right-hemisphere functions involved in perceptual closure, however, were not completely abolished, as performance improved with increasing visual information. The advantages of Snodgrass fragmented pictures as a neuropsychological test are discussed.