Disturbed spatial cognitive processing of body-related stimuli in a case of a lesion to the right fusiform gyrus

Abstract

The fusiform gyrus (FG) is well known as one of the main neural sites of human face and body processing. We report the case of a young male patient with epilepsy and a circumscribed lesion in the right FG who presented with isolated impairments in spatial cognitive processing of body-related stimuli. However, he did not show any clinical signs of prosopagnosia. In particular, handling/processing of body and face stimuli was impaired, when stimuli were presented in unconventional views and orientations, thus requiring additional spatial cognitive operations. In this case study, we discuss the patient’s selective impairment from the view of current empirical and theoretical work on the segregation of functions in the FG.

Keywords:

• fusiform gyrus
• spatial cognition
• fusiform face area
• fusiform body area
• mental rotation