IN A SYSTEMATIC study of patients who had sustained battle injuries of the parieto-occipital lobes,1 we found 12 with spatial disorientation. The disorders ranged in severity from almost complete "space blindness" to conditions in which the defect seemed confined to homonymous halves, quadrants or even sectors of the fields of vision. Particularly the patients with sector defects presented highly consistent symptoms. However, none of the findings could readily be explained in terms of current theories of visual space perception. Before embarking on an analysis of our case material, we shall, therefore, trace some of the previous attempts at a neurologic and psychologic interpretation of disorders in the visual perception of spatial relations.
Prior to World War I, a disorder in the perception of spatial relations was considered part of a generalized disturbance in intellectual function. Loss of orientation in space as well as the inability to localize objects in