title: The heterogeneity of category-specific semantic disorders: evidence from a new case.
abstract: We report a new case of category-specific semantic impairment, affecting living entities, in a patient with traumatic brain damage. In the present investigation we attempted to replicate as closely as possible the testing procedures which have been developed by Caramazza and Shelton (1998) to evaluate EW, a patient with a selective semantic disorder for the animal category. The results in our patient indicated a different performance profile, characterised by a more extensive semantic disorder for living entities, and by a more severe loss of specific visual rather than functional knowledge. These findings concur with other evidence indicating that category-specific semantic disorders are heterogeneous, reflecting different mechanisms of impairment, most likely associated with different neurobiological underpinnings.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Università Vita Salute San Raffaele, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rosazza
authors.forename: Emilia
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Imbornone
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zorzi
authors.forename: Elisabetta
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Farina
authors.forename: Leonora
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chiavari
authors.forename: Stefano F
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Cappa
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007806:Language Disorders / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011594:Psychometrics; D012660:Semantics; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed