PRESERVED COLOR IMAGERY IN AN ACHROMATOPSIC

The loss of color vision secondary to central nervous system disease ( achromatopsia) is thought to preclude visual imagery of colors. We rep ort a patient with achromatopsia, secondary to bilateral temporo-occip ital infarcts inclusive of the lingual and fusiform gyri, with preserv ed color imagery. Our findings, in conjunction with previous cases in the literature, are consistent with a single neural network for color processing in which a disconnection of internal activation from stored color representations produces impaired color imagery with preserved color perception, whereas a disconnection of visual input to these rep resentations produces achromatopsia with preserved color imagery. Copy right (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.