Neuropsychology of colour vision: Studies in patients with acquired brain damage, healthy participants, and cases

Abstract

In this thesis, we studied the neuropsychology of low-level sensory and higher-order visual perception in healthy participants, patients with acquired deficits in visual perception, and a man with a selective developmental deficit in colour processing. In neuropsychological literature, sensory disorders as well as higher-order recognition deficits have been reported after acquired brain damage. There is still considerable debate about the link between sensory disorders and higher-order, recognition deficits (i.e. agnosias). In this thesis, a relatively small group study is reported that investigated this link (Part I; Chapter 2). In the remainder of the thesis, colour vision is emphasised. In Part II, learned associations between colours and objects in healthy participants are dealt with (Chapters 3-5). Besides acquired impairments in visual perception, cases have been described with developmental deficits. The neuropsychology of colour vision, ranging from colour perception, discrimination, and categorisation to colour naming, object-colour knowledge and colour imagery, is extensively studied in a unique case of developmental colour agnosia (MAH) (Part III; Chapters 6-10). In this final chapter, a concise summary of the results from is presented along with the major conclusions and a discussion of methodological strengths and weaknesses of the experiments.