Naming people ignoring semantics in a patient with left frontal damage

Studies about proper name anemia generally assume that persons' names are h arder to recall than other semantic information one knows about them and th at name retrieval is not possible without biographical knowledge. We descri be a patient, SE, who, after a left frontal haemorrhage, was unable to reca ll any biographical information about people she could name. Moreover, she had a normal score in an Object Picture Naming Test, but gave confabulatory answers in a Semantic Questionnaire involving the same items. The role of frontal function in producing this pattern of impairment is discussed, toge ther with the possible existence of a direct route from visual perception t o proper name retrieval.