What is visual agnosia?
Visual agnosia is the inability to recognise familiar objects by sight in the absence of any significant visual or intellectual impairment.
There are two types of visual agnosia:
- Apperceptive visual agnosia is characterised by difficulty in forming stable perceptual representations of objects. Recognition issues are based on impairment of visual perception. People with apperceptive visual agnosia may not be able to match or copy shapes or objects but may be able to identify objects from tactile or auditory input.
- Associative (semantic) visual agnosia is characterised by the inability to recognise familiar objects when perception is intact. People with associative agnosia may be able to copy and draw shapes and objects. they may be able to form a mental representation but be unable to associate it with stored knowledge of objects and their use.
Page last reviewed: 29 Jul 2021
