Colour association and "colour amnesia" in aphasia.

"Colour association" performance of 50 aphasic patients was investigated by means of a test in which they identified the characteristic colours of objects shown in line drawings. All aphasics with defects in colour association were impaired in reading comprehension. However, some (33%) retained normal aural comprehension. Approximately half the aphasics with receptive language impairment performed normally in colour association. The findings suggest that "colour amnesia" may be the result of a specific cognitive disturbance which is also responsible for a subtype of aphasic alexia.