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Visual Agnosia

Visual Agnosia

Visual agnosia is a condition characterized by the inability to recognize visually presented objects despite having normal vision. For instance, a person with visual agnosia can describe the shape and color of an object but cannot identify or name it. This impairment does not affect their visual field, acuity, color vision, brightness discrimination, language, or memory. An example of this condition in a social setting is someone at a dinner party asking for "that silver thing with a round end"...

Lateralization

Lateralization

Brain lateralization refers to the division of mental processes and functions between the two hemispheres of the brain, a phenomenon that optimizes neural efficiency and underpins complex abilities in humans. This specialization allows each hemisphere to perform tasks where it has a comparative advantage, facilitating more refined cognitive capabilities across different domains.

Vision

Vision

Vision is the result of light being detected and transduced into neural signals by the retina of the eye. This information is then further analyzed and interpreted by the brain. First, light enters the front of the eye and is focused by the cornea and lens onto the retina—a thin sheet of neural tissue lining the back of the eye. Because of refraction through the convex lens of the eye, images are projected onto the retina upside-down and reversed.

Association Areas of the Cortex

Association Areas of the Cortex

Association areas are regions of the cerebral cortex that do not have a specific sensory or motor function. Instead, they integrate and interpret information from various sources to enable higher cognitive processes such as memory, learning, and decision-making. Some key association areas include the following:
Prefrontal Association Area: This area is located in the frontal lobe and is involved in planning, decision-making, and moderating social behavior. It connects with primary motor areas,...

Prosopagnosia

Prosopagnosia

Prosopagnosia, also known as face blindness, is the inability to recognize faces. In severe cases, individuals with prosopagnosia may not recognize close family members, including parents and spouses, by their faces. For instance, someone with prosopagnosia might walk past their child in a crowd, only realizing their mistake upon noticing their child's distinctive backpack or favorite jacket. Prosopagnosia specifically impairs facial recognition, while the recognition of other objects or...

Parallel Processing

Parallel Processing

The brain processes sensory information rapidly due to parallel processing, which involves sending data across multiple neural pathways at the same time. This method allows the brain to manage various sensory qualities, such as shapes, colors, movements, and locations, all concurrently. For instance, when observing a forest landscape, the brain simultaneously processes the movement of leaves, the shapes of trees, the depth between them, and the various shades of green. This enables a quick and...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 7, 2026

Virtual Reality Tools for Assessing Unilateral Spatial Neglect: A Novel Opportunity for Data Collection

Virtual Reality Tools for Assessing Unilateral Spatial Neglect: A Novel Opportunity for Data Collection

Published on: March 10, 2021

Local (focussed) and global (distributed) visual processing in hemispatial neglect.

Andrea Peru¹, Leonardo Chelazzi

¹Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Educazione, Università di Firenze, Via del Parione, 11/b, 50123, Firenze, Italy. andrea.peru@unifi.it

Experimental Brain Research

|February 26, 2008

Summary

Brain damage can impair visual attention. Right brain-damaged patients with neglect show deficits in focused and distributed attention, while left brain-damaged patients have milder focused attention issues.

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Published on: April 11, 2025

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Cognitive Psychology
Neurology

Background:

Attentional processes are crucial for visual perception.
Brain damage can lead to specific attentional deficits, such as hemispatial neglect.
Understanding the distinct roles of focused and distributed attention is vital for diagnosing and treating neurological conditions.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate deficits in focused and distributed attention in patients with brain damage.
To examine the interaction between these two attentional components.
To differentiate attentional impairments in left brain-damaged (LBD) and right brain-damaged (RBD) patients, with and without hemispatial neglect.

Main Methods:

Assessed focused and distributed attention using an experimental paradigm with two embedded tasks.
Tested four LBD patients (without neglect) and six RBD patients (with variable neglect).
Tasks involved counting shapes (distributed attention) and target detection (focused attention) on briefly displayed visual arrays.

Main Results:

LBD patients showed slight impairment in focused attention to the contralesional visual hemifield.
RBD patients with mild neglect had significant difficulty with focused attention but not distributed attention.
RBD patients with severe neglect exhibited deficits in both focused (local) and distributed (global) visual processing.

Conclusions:

Focused and distributed attention components can be differentially affected by brain damage.
Right brain damage, particularly with neglect, significantly impacts both focused and distributed visual processing.
Attentional deficits vary based on the location and severity of brain damage, influencing both local and global visual processing.