| Abstract: | Summary Forty-one patients with unilateral retro-rolandic brain lesion were examined by means of three experimental tests requiring the recognition of complex realistic figures. In addition, all patients were given two tests for the recogniion of common objects and simple realistic line drawings. A set of control variables included tests for elementary visual functions, non-verbal intelligence and aphasia. Furtheron, the influence of side and hemispheric locus as well as severity of brain lesion was examined.By analyses of variance the following results were obtained: Aphasia did not play a significant role for test performance. In two of the experimental tests, the Street Test and the Hooper Test, the sub-group with right hemispheric lesion and visual field defect (VFD) was particularly impaired. It could be demonstrated, however, that this finding cannot be explained by VFD as a defect in visual function. Rather, the presence of VFD indicates a particular localization of brain lesion which is critical for the visuocognitive performances tested. For the Poppelreuter Test a significant hemispheric difference was found, right brain damaged patients performing poorer. The recognition of simple objects yielded no  agnosic errors.This investigation was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. |
