Visual object agnosia is characterized by the inability to name, describe, or demonstrate how to use a common object, despite intact vision. Which of the following statements is true?

• A. It is characterized by inability to name, describe, or demonstrate how to use objects
• B. It is characterized by inability to recognize faces
• C. It is caused by primary motor cortex damage
• D. It is a form of cortical blindness

Answer: (A)

Visual object agnosia involves intact basic vision but a failure to access stored knowledge about objects, so a person cannot name, describe, or demonstrate how to use a common object seen. This matches the statement that describes an inability to name, describe, or demonstrate object use despite normal vision. The issue lies in the ventral stream—the “what” pathway—where higher-level object recognition and semantic access occur, not in basic sight or motor function.

The other possibilities describe different problems: not recognizing faces is prosopagnosia, which is a separate type of perceptual deficit; damage to the primary motor cortex would produce motor deficits rather than a failure to recognize or describe objects; cortical blindness results from loss of vision due to primary visual cortex damage, so vision itself is impaired rather than the recognition process.