The role of sensorimotor experience in object recognition. A case of multimodal agnosia

Object recognition was studied in a 19-yr-old male patient who presented severe multimodal amnesia and agnosia without significant intellectual, linguistic or perceptual deficits. Bilateral temporal lobe lesions involved medial, polar and anterior infero-temporal structures. Although visual recognition was impaired to various extents for all categories of objects, preservation of certain capacities were demonstrated. In particular, the patient was able to determine specifically how to manipulate certain objects, in spite of his incapacity to define their function or their context of utilization. It is argued that object recognition involves different processing modes such that when direct access to representations of an object is impaired, sensorimotor information activated via alternative cortical and subcortical pathways may provide a limited mechanism for recognition.