Can WHAT and HOW paths be seperated in the brain?

You might enjoy reading "to see or not to see" chapter from Oliver Sack's An Anthropologist from Mars book.

The chapter is about a 45+ year old blind man who gains his eyesight thru surgery. His re-discovery of the new visual world is very lucidly described in this case study.

Here are some excerpts that I thought would be relevant to your thread on WHAT vs. HOW:

"when ... at home... virgil, caneless... found walking "scary" and "confusing" without touch, without cane, with his uncertain, unstable judgement of space and distance. Sometimes surfaces or objects would seem to loom, to be on top of him, when they were still quite a distance away; sometimes he would get confused by his own shadow (the whole concept of shadows, of objects blocking light, was puzzling to him) and would come to a stop, or trip, or try to step over it." (pg 120)

Did you notice how Virgil was unable to tell what his own shadow was?? BTW, he was still able to step over it... that is, he was able to handle it in a HOW way.

HS, another patient of Dr. Sacks, says: " During these first weeks [after surgery] I had no appreciation of depth or distance; street lights were luminous stains stuck to the window panes, and the corridors of the hospital were black holes." (pg 121)

Again, you will notice that it was not about how to walk or how to look or cross street. It had more to do with WHAT were these objects?

I personally could relate to the stated difference between HOW and the WHAT pathways. To me, WHAT is about recognition, semantics and identification. On the other hand, the HOW part is more about motor movement. While I do not know if Paralysis is related to this stuff, but I drew a connect to it: I felt that a Paralysis victim will be able to tell the WHAT of the world but not be able to do the HOW part.

Your thoughts?