15 - Visuospatialfunction

Summary

This chapter discusses the neuroanatomy underlying visuospatial function. It discusses anatomical organization of visuospatial processing, and visuospatial syndromes relevant to clinical disorders. Studies on visuospatial memory have distinguished between visuospatial working memory and memory for visuospatial information. Su and colleagues studied 37 patients with basal ganglia hemorrhage and found that visuospatial function and memory were the most affected cognitive domains. The chapter considers visuospatial impairment in common neurologic diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD). Less common disorders such as Huntington's disease (HD) and Williams syndrome (WMS) are also described to emphasize the variety of etiologies that may affect the visuospatial system. Posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) is a clinically homogeneous but pathologically heterogeneous syndrome in which the onset of a progressive dementia is characterized by visual deficits. AD is the most common pathological correlate of PCA.