Visual and verbal learning in a genetic metabolic disorder (cystinosis) were examined in the following three studies. The goal of Study I was to provide a normative database and establish the reliability and validity of a new test of visual learning and memory (Visual Learning and Memory Test; VLMT) that was modeled after a widely used test of…

Paired associates learning is impaired in both schizophrenia and amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), which may reflect hippocampal pathology. In addition, schizophrenia is characterized by the dysfunction of the retino-geniculo-striatal magnocellular (M) visual pathway. The purpose of this study was to investigate the interaction between…

Neglect dyslexia--a peripheral reading disorder generally associated with left spatial neglect--is characterized by omissions or substitutions of the initial letters of words. Several observations suggest that neglect dyslexia errors are independent of viewer-centered coordinates; the disorder is therefore thought to reflect impairment at the…

A series of experiments test the recent claim that the hippocampus is necessary for the binding of features in working memory. Some potential limitations of studies underlying this claim are discussed, and an attempt is made to further test the hypothesis by studying a case of developmental amnesia whose extensively investigated pathology appears…

Visual illusions have been shown to affect perceptual judgements more so than motor behaviour, which was interpreted as evidence for a functional division of labour within the visual system. The dominant perception-action theory argues that perception involves a holistic processing of visual objects or scenes, performed within the ventral,…

There is now a large body of evidence suggesting that color and photographic detail exert an effect on recognition of visually presented familiar objects. However, an unresolved issue is whether these factors act at the visual, the semantic or lexical level of the recognition process. In the present study, we investigated this issue by having…

Epilepsy is frequently associated with attention and memory problems. In adults, lateralization of seizure focus impacts the type of memory affected (left-sided lesions primarily impact verbal memory, while right-sided lesions primarily impact visual memory), but the relationship between seizure focus and the nature of the memory impairment is…

A word-length effect is often described in pure alexia, with reading time proportional to the number of letters in a word. Given the frequent association of right hemianopia with pure alexia, it is uncertain whether and how much of the word-length effect may be attributable to the hemifield loss. To isolate the contribution of the visual field…

Cognitive neuroscientific research proposes complementary hemispheric asymmetries in naming and recognising visual objects, with a left temporal lobe advantage for object naming and a right temporal lobe advantage for object recognition. Specifically, it has been proposed that the left inferior temporal lobe plays a mediational role linking…

A recent hypothesis proposes that reading depends on writing in a logographic language--Chinese. We present a Chinese individual (HLD) with brain damage whose profile challenges this hypothesis. HLD was severely impaired in the whole process of writing. He could not access orthographic knowledge, had poor orthographic awareness, and was poor at…

Numerous reports of elevated global motion thresholds across a variety of neurodevelopmental disorders have prompted researchers to suggest that abnormalities in global motion perception are a result of a general deficiency in the dorsal visual pathway. To test this hypothesis, we assessed the integrity of the dorsal visual pathway at lower…

The role of the anterior temporal lobe (ATL) in semantic memory is now firmly established. There is still controversy, however, regarding the specific role of this region in processing various types of concepts. There have been reports of patients suffering from semantic dementia (SD), a neurodegenerative condition in which the ATL is damaged…

The magnocellular (M) pathway hypothesis proposes that impaired visual motion perception observed in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) might be mediated by atypical functioning of the subcortical M pathway, as this pathway provides the bulk of visual input to cortical motion detectors. To test this hypothesis, we measured luminance…

It has been proposed that visual recognition memory and certain attentional mechanisms are impaired early in Alzheimer disease (AD). Little is known about visuospatial recognition memory in AD. The crucial role of the hippocampus on spatial memory and its damage in AD suggest that visuospatial recognition memory may also be impaired early. The aim…

Young children born very prematurely show elevated thresholds for global motion and global form [Atkinson, J. & Braddick, O. (2007). "Visual and visuocognitive development in children born very prematurely." "Progress in Brain Research, 164." 123-149; MacKay, T. L., Jakobson, L. S., Ellemberg, D., Lewis, T. L., Maurer, D., & Casiro, O. (2005).…