Blindness to form from motion despite intact static form perception and motion detection

Abstract

We studied the motion perception, including form and meaning generated by motion, in a hemianopic patient who also had visual perceptual impairments in her seeing hemifield as a result of a lesion in ventral extrastriate cortex. She was unable to recognise 2- or 3-dimensional forms, and even borders, generated by motion alone, failed to recognise mimed actions or the Johannson 'biological motion' display, and ceased to recognise people well-known to her when they moved. Her performance with static displays, although impaired, could not explain her inability to perceive shape or derive meaning from moving displays. Unlike a motion-blind patient, she can still see and describe the motion, with the exception of second-order motion, but not what it creates or represents.