Autotopoagnosia: a disorder of the body schema?

Autotopoagnosia (inability to recognize the different parts of the human body) is usually considered as a disorder of the body schema subsequent to left hemispheric lesions. The experimental study on 120 patients affected by brain injury and 57 normal controls aimed at: checking whether autotopoagnosia is more frequent in left than in right hemispheric lesions and if this prevalence is due to aphasia or irrespective of it; checking if the disorder is due to an elective disintegration of the 'body schema' or, instead, is not specific for the human body. The results have shown that autotopoagnosia affects especially aphasic subjects and is not an independent disorder, since patients with autotopoagnosia have similar difficulties in recognizing and naming parts of mechanical objects as well as in recognizing and naming parts of the human body.