Ability of Subjects With Aphasia to Visually Analyze Written Language, Pantomime, and Iconographic Symbols

Abstract

Considerable debate exists regarding aphasia and its relationship to deficits observed in the ability to analyze visual stimuli. In this investigation, the ability of patients with aphasia to comprehend various types of visual stimuli was compared to that of subjects with no known neurological impairment. The types of visual stimuli of interest were: written language, pantomime, and iconographic symbols. Results indicated that individuals with aphasia, in comparison to the controls, demonstrated inferior performance on their comprehension of pantomime and written language. However, for iconographs, patients with aphasia performed comparably to the controls. Directions for future research are discussed.