Color Anomia

Definition

Anomia is the inability to name colors in the absence of a more global anomia associated with an aphasic disorder.

Current Knowledge

To be classified as a color anomia, the disorder should occur in the absence of problems with color perception or recognition (i.e., the patient should be able to match or sort colors). Two subtypes of the disorder have been identified. In one, the problem is limited to an inability to name colors that are visually presented or to point to colors named by the examiner. This type of color anomia is usually associated with the syndrome of alexia without agraphia and results from lesions involving the primary visual cortex of the dominant hemisphere (resulting in a right homonymous hemianopsia) and the splenium of the corpus callosum. Visual information is thus restricted to the left visual field (right hemisphere) and the color information cannot cross the involved splenium of the corpus callosum to reach the left (verbal) hemisphere. In the...