Optic aphasia with spared action naming: a description and possible loci of impairment.

A brief functional description is given of an optic aphasic patient, A.G., who shows a pure and isolated deficit in naming visually presented objects on confrontation, but with sparing of visual action names. We show how some tasks related to imagery are compromised in this patient and speculate on possible functional site(s) of impairment in terms of the routes from perception to naming. We suggest why action naming may be spared in such cases.