Source: http://psych.fullerton.edu/swillis/agnosia305.htm
Imagine that you have suffered some sort of brain damage. You go in to see a special brain doctor. The following situation is an hypothetical description of how a patient with agnosia might act during a visit to a doctor.
A family physician thinks that his patient, Joe Schmoe, has problems with either his memory or his ability to identify things. So the family physician refers Joe to a neurologist (simply put, a neurologist studies brains). Shortly there after, Joe walks into the a neurologists office. After a few questions ...
Doctor: "Could you please copy this picture for me?"
Joe thinks to himself, "Well that's a simple task," he glances down at the other picture, and then looks at the blank sheet of paper. He moves his pen across the sheet and starts to draw. "That's it," he thinks to himself. "I did a good job! I definitely replicated the picture that the doctor wanted me to draw."
But then The doctor asks: "Do you know what you just drew?"
Joe looks at the lines, the edges, and the shapes of his sketch, but he cannot answer! "I, ah, I don't know"
"Joe, you drew a house."
As Joe hears this news he looses his sense of accomplishment, and begins to feel helpless. He quickly begins to despair
"What is wrong with me?" Joe asks.
"You appear to have Visual Agnosia" says the neurologist.
To which Joe replied, "Visual what?"
"You can see things. You copied the picture perfectly. Therefore, you do not have any problems with your eyes. However, you appear to be having difficulties identifying what you see."
(No references, we made this one up)
If you have or are curious about situations similar to Joe's, but aren't even sure what agnosia is. We can answer that for you. In the links below we provide answers as to what agnosia truly is, along with its causes and potential treatments. Unfortunately with many brain disorders there are not always treatments. However the diseases themselves make life as usual much more difficult. We also provide lifestyle changes that help those with agnosias to lead more normal lives.
Definitions of agnosia, including visual agnosia.
What can cause visual agnosia? Along with the two different stages of visual agnosia.
Besides visual agnosia, there are several different types of agnosia. What are they?
Is there treatment for Agnosia?
In the types of agnosia we mentioned prosopagnosia. In this form of agnosia people stop being able to recognize people's faces
Characteristics of Prosopagnosia
Types of Prosopagnosia
What can cause prosopagnosia?
How can prosopagnosia be treated?
Agnosia can appear similar to memory problems. If a person cannot identify a common object, we may assume that they have just forgotten what that object it. However, people with agnosia remember objects, their brains simply cannot connect their memories to the things that they see. Therefore, in order to diagnose an agnosia you must first rule out potential memory problems.
For example, in the following picture the woman cannot identify a set of keys by sight alone. However, once she can feel the keys with her fingers, then she can identify them. In contrast to her, the man in the lower half of the picture cannot identify the keys even when he can hold them in his hand.
Organizations
National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD)
P.O. Box 1968
(55 Kenosia Avenue)
Danbury, CT 06813-1968
orphan@rarediseases.org
http://www.rarediseases.org
Tel: 203-744-0100 Voice Mail 800-999-NORD (6673)
Fax: 203-798-2291
National Eye Institute (NEI)
National Institutes of Health, DHHS
31 Center Drive, Rm. 6A32 MSC 2510
Bethesda, MD 20892-2510
2020@nei.nih.gov
http://www.nei.nih.gov
Tel: 301-496-5248 Bulk Publications Orders: 800-869-2020
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
National Institutes of Health, DHHS
31 Center Drive, Rm. 3C35 MSC 2320
Bethesda, MD 20892-2320
nidcdinfo@nidcd.nih.gov
http://www.nidcd.nih.gov
Tel: 301-496-7243 301-241-1055 (TTD/TTY)
Please feel free to check out our references
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