Object Agnosia Essay

Agnosia, meaning “lack of knowledge” (Garrett, pg.326), is something that hinders one’s ability to accurately interpret their senses. There are several different types of agnosia, and each one effects people’s senses differently. Agnosia is often times a result of brain injury. The damage to certain parts of the brain changes the way a person is able to interpret things. As the meaning of the word describes, people lose their knowledge of the particular sensation. “Object agnosia is the impaired ability to recognize objects.” (Garrett, pg. 326) This is something that will occur when a person suffers trauma to their inferior temporal cortex. Object agnosia hinders a person’s ability to process objects correctly that are right in front of them. People who experience object agnosia are able to correctly identify objects when they are able to feel the objects, but there is an impairment that occurs when processing the object visually and having the brain interpret what the person is looking at. The book describes a case where a man suffering from object
“Color agnosia is the loss of the ability to perceive colors due to brain damage.” (Garrett, pg. 329) A common example of this would be color blindness. Color blindness makes it difficult for a person to correctly interpret colors. The book explains that it is not just incorrectly identifying colors, but it would also make it difficult for your brain to adjust and process the array of colors and shades we see. Our brains are able to adjust to light and colors due to color constancy. “If not for color constancy, objects would seem to change colors as the sun shifted its position through the day or as we went indoors into artificial light.” (Garrett, pg. 329) If a person were suffering from color agnosia it would make it difficult for them in situations like driving because it would be impossible for them to interpret the colors of a traffic light signaling to them what to