Simultanagnosia through the eyes of an artist.

Abstract

An 87-year-old artist experienced a top-of-the-basilar-artery embolic stroke secondary to atrial fibrillation and manifested a visual agnosia. Prior to her stroke, she painted scenes solely from memory. During her stroke recovery, her serial drawings and paintings revealed selective attention to the left lower quadrant, with important aspects of the whole image "clipped," as if missing from her internal representation of the whole object. Years later, her artistic abilities returned with only minor differences from those prior to her stroke.