What if all of a sudden you couldn’t tell an umbrella from a cane?Or couldn’t you recognize objects to the touch? If this were to happen to you systematically, you would probably suffer some kind of agnosia: the inability to recognize all the information that passes through the senses, a term introduced by Sigmund Freud in 1891.
Even if all our senses work properly, the problem comes from our brains; is unable to recognize information filtered by the senses; stroke, stroke, or decreased oxygen in the brain can cause damage to agnosia.
The word agnosia comes from Greek and means “not knowing”
All people who suffer from agnosia go through a phase of frustration, helplessness and anguish because they are unable to interpret what they see, feel or eat, it is as if the senses and the brain stop speaking the same language, as if they are disconnected being totally independent of each other.
Therefore, it is common and understandable from this logic that people with agnosia become depressed, the cause is precisely this disconnect between their brain and the senses that makes it difficult not only to perceive the world, but also to interact with it in its various forms.
It is important to mention that when we talk about agnosia, we do not mean that suddenly all the senses are altered, as we will see below, there are many types of agnosia:
“I was a spectre. He looked at me and only saw a blurry face. I only saw one ghost lost in the mirror. I didn’t know if it was my mouth, my ear or my nose”Ester Chumillas, you suffer from visual agnosia due to meningitis?
After talking about all the agnosias, it should be mentioned that the most common is that this is only one direction to be affected, that is, a person with motor agnosia normally does not have another type of agnosia, however, it is a standard. for which there are also exceptions.
The reason we can only have one type of agnosia is that usually only part of the brain is damaged, for example, if our temporal lobe has certain lesions, we are most likely to suffer from auditory agnosia. our occipital lobe is affected, we may experience visual or spatial agnosia.
In the event of damage to two areas of the brain, more than one type of agnosia may occur, however, at this point, the question we are concerned about is: is it curable?
The answer is yes: there are hopes for a remarkable improvement, especially thanks to professionals in occupational therapy, speech therapy and neurology who can provide the interested party with very useful tools. For example, does cognitive rehabilitation teach certain “tricks”?recognize a face. The first is to look at the most vivid details of that face and learn to interpret them in case you suffer from visual agnosia.
Agnosia is not a well-known term. Today, however, we know much more about this problem that affects many people, making it difficult for them to day to day, thanks to professionals who are dedicated to researching and learning more about it. Today, we can say that in cases where there is no comprehensive cure for agnosia, professionals can provide resources and tools that make the patient’s life much easier and more productive.
“Sometimes I don’t know where to go?. . . Anne, do you suffer from space agnosia?