Perceptual Disorders

Abstract

Perceptual processes provide the basis for mental representation of the visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, somatosensory, and social "worlds" as well as for guiding and controlling cognitive, social, and motor activities. All perceptual systems, i.e. vision, audition, somatosensory perception, smell and taste, and social perception are segregated functional networks and show a parallel-hierarchical type of organization of information processing and encoding. In pathological conditions such as acquired brain injury, perceptual functions and abilities can be variably affected, ranging from the loss of stimulus detection to impaired recognition. Despite the functional specialization of perceptual systems, association of perceptual deficits within sensory modalities is the rule, and disorders of a single perceptual function or ability are rare. This chapter describes cerebral visual, auditory, somatosensory, olfactory, and gustatory perceptual disorders within a neuropsychological framework. Disorders in social perception are also considered because they represent a genuine category of perceptual impairments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)