Verbal and figural Gestalt Completion Tests with lateralized occipital area brain damage.

Verbal and figural forms of the Gestalt Completion Test were administered to 8 subjects with left or near left occipital, 12 with right or near right occipital, 12 with left anterior-lateral and 9 with right anterior-lateral lesions. Z score indices of verbal vs. figural scores were constructed. The indices for these groups were compared. Damage to the left occipital area did not impair the figural score more than the verbal, while damage to the right occipital area impaired the figural considerably more than the verbal. The anterior-lateral groups had no lateralized impairment. This supports the concept that the left occipital area perceptually transforms verbal visual data, while the right occipital area transforms figural visual data.