A Reader in Visual Agnosia

The case study of John has provided a unique insight into the nature of visual agnosia and more broadly into the underlying processes which support human vision. After suffering a stroke, John had problems in recognizing common objects, faces, seeing colours, reading and finding his way around his environment. A Reader in Visual Agnosia brings together the primary scientific papers describing the detailed investigations for each visual problem which the authors carried out with John, known as patient HJA. This work was summarised initially in To See But Not To See (1987), and 26 years later in A Case Study in Visual Agnosia Revisited (2013).

The chapters are divided into 6 parts corresponding to the key areas of investigation:

• Integrative visual agnosia
• Perception of global form
• Face perception
• Colour perception
• Word recognition
• Changes over time

Each part contains a short introduction, written by the two leading researchers who worked with John, which highlights the relations between the papers and demonstrates the pathway of the case analysis. The book will be invaluable to students and researchers in visual cognition, cognitive neuropsychology and vision neuroscience.

Glyn Humphreys is Watts Professor of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford, UK. His research covers the diagnosis and management of cognitive problems after brain injury, visual attention, perception, language and the control of action, and social cognition. He has published over 500 papers in international journals and 16 books.

Jane Riddoch is Professorial Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, UK. Her research covers visual disorders (agnosia, optic aphasia), disorders of attention (neglect, extinction), and action (apraxia, action disorganisation syndrome) and neuropsychological rehabilitation. She has published 150 papers in leading international journals and authored/edited five books.