Perceptual agnosias IntroductionAgnosia is a clinical condition characterized by a perception disorder located in an intermediate stage between the primary sensory defect and general intellectual dysfunction (Hécaen & Albert, 1978; Mather, 2009). Agnosias are described as the loss of the ability to recognize objects, people, sounds, shapes or smells while the specific sense is not impaired nor is there any significant memory loss (Mather, 2009). A person may have a visual impairment, hearing impairment. The olfactory, somatosensory system and also the sense of hearing, smell or touch function normally (Gazzaniga, Ivry & Mangun, 2014). The term was coined by Sigmund Freud, who derived it from the Greek a – (“without”) and agnosis (“knowledge”). According to Riddoch et al. (2008) agnosias were first described by Liassauer in 1890. Liassauer (1890) proposed the existence of an apperceptive agnosia, Kussmaul (1877) first described a patient with pure speech deafness, and Bernard (1889) noted a 'amusia. Since then, many other cases have been reported (Mendez and Geehan, 1988). Auditory agnosia Auditory agnosia is a rare cortical hearing impairment and cognitive disorder. Refers to the inability to recognize sounds, nonverbal and/or acoustic stimuli despite adequate hearing as measured by standard audiometry. Auditory agnosia is also defined as the inability to process environmental sounds and speech, in the absence of aphasia and defective recognition of auditory stimuli in the context of preserved hearing (Hécaen & Albert 1978; Motomura, Yamadori, Mori, & Tamaru, 1986; Miceli, Conti, Cianfoni, Di Giacopo, Zampetti, & Servidei, 2008; Zhang, Kaga, & Hayashi, 2011). Clinical reports of auditory agnosia in patients include the inability to recognize...... middle of paper.... ... J. (2001). Compensatory coding of body part location in autotopagnosia: Evidence for extrinsic egocentric coding. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 18(4), 363-381. Shoemaker, W. J. (2012). The brain's social network and human moral behavior. Zygon: Journal Of Religion & Science, 47(4), 806-820.Villarejo, A., Martin, V., Moreno-Ramos, T., Camacho-Salas, A., Porta-Etessam, J., & Bermejo -Pareja, F. (2011). Misidentification of the mirror self in a patient without dementia: Evidence of right hemispheric and bifrontal damage. Neurocase, 17(3), 276-284.Ward, J. (2010). The student's guide to cognitive neuroscience. (2nd ed.). Hove: Psychology Press.Zhang, Q., Kaga, K., & Hayashi, A. (2011). Auditory agnosia due to long-term severe hydrocephalus caused by spina bifida: auditory-specific versus auditory-nonspecific. Acta Oto-Laryngologica, 131(7), 787-792.