Real object use facilitates object recognition in semantic agnosia

Abstract

In the present paper we show that, in patients with poor semantic representations, the naming of real objects can improve when naming takes place after patients have been asked to use the objects, compared with when they name the objects either from vision or from touch alone, or together. In addition, the patients were strongly affected by action when required to name objects that were used correctly or incorrectly by the examiner. The data suggest that actions can be cued directly from sensory-motor associations, and that patients can then name on the basis of the evoked action.

Keywords:

• Semantic agnosia
• Object use
• Object recognition
• Agnosia
• Naming objects

This work was supported by grants from the Stroke Association, the BBSRC and the MRC (UK). We thank both patients for their kind participation.

Notes

¹By including Accuracy as a factor in this Log Linear analysis, we test whether the relative number of correct to incorrect responses changed across the different conditions. This would be revealed by an interaction between the factor of Accuracy and the conditions of interest.