Visual Associative Agnosia — SCE Neurology MCQ

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HardCerebrovascular DiseaseVisual Associative AgnosiaSCE Neurology

A 55-year-old woman presents with sudden onset of inability to recognise faces, objects, and colours despite demonstrably intact visual acuity and visual fields. She can describe the physical features of objects but cannot identify what they are. MRI brain shows bilateral inferior temporal and occipital infarcts. What is this deficit?

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Correct answer: C — Visual (associative) agnosia

Visual (associative) agnosia is the inability to recognise objects despite intact basic visual processing (acuity, fields, colour perception). The patient can describe visual features (shape, colour) but cannot match the percept to stored knowledge to identify the object. It results from bilateral ventral visual stream (inferior temporal/occipital) damage. It is distinct from: apperceptive agnosia (cannot perceive the object's form), prosopagnosia (face-specific), and cortical blindness (no visual perception). A: Cortical blindness has no vision. C: Prosopagnosia is face-specific. D: Simultanagnosia is inability to perceive multiple objects. E: Anton syndrome has denial of blindness.

Reference: Clinical Neuroanatomy