Associated impairment of the categories of conspecifics and biological entities: Cognitive and neuroanatomical aspects of a new case

Case A.C.A. presented an associated impairment of visual recognition and semantic knowledge for celebrities and biological objects. This case was relevant for (a) the neuroanatomical correlations, and (b) the relationship between visual recognition and semantics within the biological domain and the conspecifics domain. A.C.A. was not affected by anterior temporal damage. Her bilateral vascular lesions were localized on the medial and inferior temporal gyrus on the right and on the intermediate fusiform gyrus on the left, without concomitant lesions of the parahippocampal gyrus or posterior fusiform. Data analysis was based on a novel methodology developed to estimate the rate of stored items in the visual structural description system (SDS) or in the face recognition unit. For each biological object, no particular correlation was found between the visual information accessed through the semantic system and that tapped by the picture reality judgement. Findings are discussed with reference to whether a putative resource commonality is likely between biological objects and conspecifics, and whether or not either category may depend on an exclusive neural substrate.