Global perception in simultanagnosia is not as simple as a game of connect-the-dots

Kirsten A. Dalrymple, Walter F. Bischof, David Cameron, Jason J.S. Barton, Alan Kingstone

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

15 Scopus citations

Abstract

Simultanagnosia is a neuropsychological disorder characterized by a restriction of visuospatial attention. In addition, patients are able to identify local elements of a scene, but not the global whole. This may be due to a failure to scan and assemble local elements into a global whole (i.e. connect-the-dots). We monitored the eye movements of a simultanagnosic patient while she identified local and global elements of hierarchical letters. Scanning each local element was not necessary, nor sufficient, for successful global level identification. Our results argue against a connect-the-dots strategy of global identification and suggest that residual global processing may be occurring.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1901-1908
Number of pages8
JournalVision Research
Volume49
Issue number14
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 2009
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
KD was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), and the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research (MSFHR). AK was supported by NSERC, a MSFHR Senior Scholar award, the Human Early Learning Partnership, and the Hampton Foundation. JB was supported by a Canada Research Chair and MSFHR Senior Scholarship. WB was supported by NSERC. Thank you to SL for time and dedication to this project.

Keywords

  • Attention
  • Balint syndrome
  • Eye movements
  • Perception
  • Simultanagnosia

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