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Detection by action: neuropsychological evidence for action-defined templates in search

Nature Neuroscience volume 4, pages 84–88 (2001)Cite this article

Abstract

How do we detect a target in a cluttered environment? Here we present neuropsychological evidence that detection can be based on the action afforded by a target. A patient showing symptoms of unilateral neglect following damage to the right fronto-temporal-parietal region was slow and sometimes unable to find targets when they were defined by their name or even by a salient visual property (such as their color). In contrast, he was relatively efficient at finding a target defined by the action it afforded. Two other patients with neglect showed an opposite pattern; they were better at finding a target defined by its name. The data suggest that affordances can be effective even when a brain lesion limits the use of other properties in search tasks. The findings give evidence for a direct pragmatic route from vision to action in the brain.

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Figure 1: Lesion reconstructions in the patients, from MRI scan.
Figure 2: MP's performance across experiments 1–4.
Figure 3: RTs for MP in experiment 5.
Figure 4: Example object and non-object stimuli used in experiment 6.
Figure 5

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by grants from the MRC and the Wellcome Trust. We thank MP, MB and GK for their participation in these studies and V. Chavda for help with scan reconstruction.

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  1. Behavioural Brain Sciences Centre, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK

    Glyn W. Humphreys & M. Jane Riddoch

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  1. Glyn W. Humphreys
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  2. M. Jane Riddoch
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Correspondence to Glyn W. Humphreys.

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Humphreys, G., Jane Riddoch, M. Detection by action: neuropsychological evidence for action-defined templates in search. Nat Neurosci 4, 84–88 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/82940

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