VISUAL-MOTION PERCEPTION AFTER BRAIN-DAMAGE .1. DEFICITS IN GLOBAL MOTION PERCEPTION

We report on the test results of a group of 32 mostly unilaterally bra in-damaged patients examined for global visual motion perception. Thre e of these patients had severely impaired visual motion perception in their contralateral visual half-field, a deficit remarkably similar to the perceptual defects found in V5-lesioned monkeys. Two of these thr ee patients had a right-hemisphere lesion; the remaining one had a lef t-hemisphere lesion. We conclude that both hemispheres of the human br ain contain an area, functionally equivalent to V5, which subserves vi sual motion perception in the contralateral visual half-field. Lesion analysis revealed that this area is located in the posterior medial te mporal gyrus. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.