MULTIMODAL OR MULTISENSORIAL AGNOSIA

A 75 year-old right handed woman had persistent right homonymous hemia nopia and alexia without agraphia caused by a haemorrhagic stroke of t he left occipito-temporal region. Six months later she suffered sudden onset visual and auditory agnosia, following a second haematoma, cont ralateral to the first one, in the right occipito-temporal region incl uding the lingual and fusiform gyri. None of the disorders concerned s emantic representation, so that an asemantic agnosia was excluded Her performance in naming and recognition tests, in both visual and audito ry modalities, demonstrated a wide range of responses and errors. The pattern of visual symptoms suggested <<associative visual agnosia narr ow sense>> (Farah, 1990); auditory agnosia concerned only the non verb al stimuli. These findings were discussed in terms of anatomical mecha nisms subserving perceptual, semantical, visuo and auditory-verbal rep resentation. In this case, visual and auditory, agnosia appears to be independent.