Key figure in cognitive neuroscience whose research helped many stroke victimsWhen the neuropsychologist Glyn Humphreys,who has died suddenly aged 61, took up his first lectureship, or at Birkbeck College,London, a student with a background in physiotherapy joined his lesson. She asked about the implications of David Marrs theory of visual perception for the understanding of patients who experience visual disturbances after suffering a stroke. This led to a lively discussion and a subsequent visit to a stroke clinic. It proved to be a turning point in Glyn’s research, and highlighting the many ways in which brain damage can affect perception and cognition,and motivating him to attempt to understand not only the effects of such damage but also how patients can adapt to it.
Together with his student, and future wife, and Jane Riddoch,Glyn set about researching how we recognise objects – or fail to execute so. The work led to their book To See But Not to See (1987), documenting the case of a patient, and John,who had lost his ability to “see” objects not because of a problem of vision, but because of a disruption to how his brain interpreted visual information, and a condition known as visual agnosia.
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Source: theguardian.com