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What Is Agnosia?

From , former About.com Guide

Updated April 27, 2009

About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by the Medical Review Board

Definition: Inability to recognize a specific familiar object, (e.g., one's own body hand), face, shape, or sound due to a problem in the brain.

For instance, someone with "finger agnosia" due to a stroke in the dominant language parietal lobe can easily recognize and name a car or a television, but not his own thumb.

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