Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Knowledge of visual attributes in the right hemisphere.

Mathieu Vandenbulcke1, Ronald Peeters, Katrien Fannes

  • 1Cognitive Neurology Laboratory, KU Leuven, University Hospital Gasthuisberg, Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven, Belgium.

Nature Neuroscience
|June 13, 2006
PubMed
Summary

The right hemisphere is crucial for processing visual knowledge. Damage to the right fusiform gyrus impairs recalling visual attributes, even with intact language abilities.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

The World Brain Health Forum: breaking silos for co-ordinated action.

Nature reviews. Neurology·2026
Same author

Catalysing a united response in Europe for neurodegenerative diseases: CURE-ND.

The Lancet. Neurology·2026
Same author

A repeat expansion in GOLGA8A is a major risk factor for atypical frontotemporal lobar degeneration with ubiquitin-positive inclusions.

Nature genetics·2026
Same author

Epicranial electrical stimulation improves non-navigational spatial memory in macaque monkeys.

Neuroimage. Reports·2026
Same author

Author Correction: Effects of electroconvulsive therapy on hippocampal longitudinal axis and its association with cognitive side effects.

Communications medicine·2026
Same author

High-resolution [<sup>18</sup>F]MK-6240 PET in Alzheimer's disease.

European journal of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging·2026

Area of Science:

  • Neurobiology
  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Visual Perception

Background:

  • Neurobiological theories often overlook the right hemisphere's role in knowledge processing.
  • Existing research predominantly focuses on the language-dominant left hemisphere.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the right hemisphere's contribution to knowledge processing, specifically visual attributes.
  • To determine if the right fusiform gyrus is essential for recalling visual features of entities.

Main Methods:

  • Case study of a left-hemisphere dominant individual (J.A.) with a right fusiform gyrus lesion.
  • Neuroimaging study using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in 27 volunteers.
  • Assessed knowledge of visual attributes through various tasks: object discrimination, feature generation, naming, and drawing.

Related Experiment Videos

Main Results:

  • J.A. exhibited a selective loss of visual attribute knowledge despite intact language.
  • Nonvisual sensory and functional-associative attributes remained unaffected.
  • fMRI showed activation in the lesioned region when participants processed visual semantic associations from pictures, not words.

Conclusions:

  • The right fusiform gyrus plays a critical role in the conscious recollection of visual attributes.
  • This finding challenges hemisphere-biased theories of knowledge processing.
  • Highlights the right hemisphere's unique contribution to visual semantic memory.