ABSTRACT

Visual agnosia is a modality-specific disorder where recognition of visually presented objects is severely compromised. Recognition via other modalities can be relatively unimpaired. More recently, it was shown that there are further fractionations within both apperceptive and associative forms of agnosia. Cases of agnosia typically have been investigated during the months immediately following the lesions, and there have been few reports on the effects of the passage of time on the visual abilities in such patients. The effects of time are of interest for at least two reasons: to assess the degree to which there is spontaneous recovery and/or the development of compensation strategies. And next reason is to assess what effects there are on long-term knowledge that was unimpaired at the time of the original insult. This chapter shows three reports on the effects of time in patients with visual agnosia: H. C., initially reported by Adler, J. R., initially reported by Davidoff and Wilson and the case reported by Kertesz.