title: Category specific semantic impairments.
abstract: We report a quantitative investigation of the visual identification and auditory comprehension deficits of 4 patients who had made a partial recovery from herpes simplex encephalitis. Clinical observations had suggested the selective impairment and selective preservation of certain categories of visual stimuli. In all 4 patients a significant discrepancy between their ability to identify inanimate objects and inability to identify living things and foods was demonstrated. In 2 patients it was possible to compare visual and verbal modalities and the same pattern of dissociation was observed in both. For 1 patient, comprehension of abstract words was significantly superior to comprehension of concrete words. Consistency of responses was recorded within a modality in contrast to a much lesser degree of consistency between modalities. We interpret our findings in terms of category specificity in the organization of meaning systems that are also modality specific semantic systems.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000647:Amnesia / Q000523:psychology; D000849:Anomia / Q000523:psychology; D001037:Aphasia / Q000523:psychology*; D003210:Concept Formation; D004411:Dyslexia, Acquired / Q000523:psychology; D004660:Encephalitis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005556:Form Perception; D006561:Herpes Simplex / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012660:Semantics; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed