Normal body perception despite the loss of right fusiform gyrus.

Human extrastriate cortex contains functional regions that are selective for particular categories such as faces, bodies, and places, but it is unclear whether these category-selective regions are necessary for normal perception of their preferred stimuli. One of these regions is the right fusiform body area (FBA), which is selectively involved in body perception. Do loss of the right fusiform gyrus and the absence of the right FBA necessarily lead to deficits in body perception? Here we report the performance of Galen, a brain-damaged patient who lost the right fusiform gyrus and has no right FBA, on eight tasks of body perception. Despite his lesion, Galen showed normal performance on all tasks. Galen's results demonstrate that damage to the right fusiform gyrus and the lack of the right FBA do not necessarily lead to persisting deficits in body perception.