We have previously noted that some patients with bilateral damage in occipitotemporal cortices fail to recognize visually a large number of natural entities (Damasio et al. 1982, 1990; Damasio, 1990). An example is patient EH-034, who, in addition to not recognizing the unique identity of faces, buildings, animals, and objects, also did not recognize many of those entities as members of a category. Confronted with the picture of a fox or a lion, the patient said it was “an animal,” but the specific category eluded her. Shown a robin, she said it was a “bird.” She was unable to indicate the approximate size, habitat, or typical behavior of the unrecognized species. As we have pointed out elsewhere, the failure did not cover entire conceptual categories (all animals, or all living things). For instance, some animals were readily recognized, e.g., elephant and giraffe, suggesting that less prototypical animals with either global...
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Damasio et al. (1990) studied this question.