Inversion superiority in visual agnosia may be common to a variety of orientation polarised objects besides faces.
Selective impairment in recognition of faces (prosopagnosia) resulting from certain localized cortical lesions has been advanced as an argument for a face specific brain module. The argument is claimed to be strengthened by the discovery of an inversion superiority effect in the recognition of faces by a prosopagnosic patient (Farah et al., Vis Res 1995b;35:2089-2093). The present paper reports an inversion superiority effect in the recognition of faces and shoes in a visual agnosic patient. The finding raises the possibility that several classes of orientationally polarized objects, of which shoes and faces are examples, will exhibit inversion superiority.
de Gelder
B
B
Laboratory of Cognitive Psychology and Psychophysiology, Tilburg University, LE, The Netherlands. b.degelder@kub.nl
Bachoud-Lévi
A C
AC
Degos
J D
JD
D000368:Aged; D000377:Agnosia / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*; D002543:Cerebral Hemorrhage / Q000150:complications; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D005556:Form Perception; D006406:Hematoma / Q000150:complications; D006801:Humans; D009778:Occipital Lobe; D011581:Psychological Tests; D012775:Shoes