Deficit in figure-ground segmentation following closed head injury

Patient CB showed a severe impairment in figure-ground segmentation following a closed head injury. Unlike normal subjects, CB was unable to parse smaller and brighter parts of stimuli as figure. Moreover, she did not show the normal effect that symmetrical regions are seen as figure, although she was able to make overt judgments of symmetry. Since she was able to attend normally to isolated objects, CB demonstrates a dissociation between figure-ground segmentation and subsequent processes of attention. Despite her severe impairment in figure-ground segmentation, CB showed normal 'parallel' single feature visual search. This suggests that figure-ground segmentation is dissociable from 'preattentive' processes such as visual search. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.