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Brain and Nerve = Shinkei Kenkyu No... Apr 2014This paper reviews clinical neuropsychological studies that have indicated that the recognition of a person's identity and the recognition of facial expressions are... (Review)
Review
This paper reviews clinical neuropsychological studies that have indicated that the recognition of a person's identity and the recognition of facial expressions are processed by different cortical and subcortical areas of the brain. The fusiform gyrus, especially the right fusiform gyrus, plays an important role in the recognition of identity. The superior temporal sulcus, amygdala, and medial frontal cortex play important roles in facial-expression recognition. Both facial recognition and facial-expression recognition are highly intellectual processes that involve several regions of the brain.
Topics: Brain; Brain Mapping; Face; Facial Expression; Humans; Prosopagnosia; Recognition, Psychology
PubMed: 24748087
DOI: No ID Found -
Cortex; a Journal Devoted To the Study... Jul 2024The goal of this preregistered scoping review is to create an overview of the research on developmental prosopagnosia (DP). Through analysis of all empirical studies of... (Review)
Review
The goal of this preregistered scoping review is to create an overview of the research on developmental prosopagnosia (DP). Through analysis of all empirical studies of DP in adults, we investigate 1) how DP is conceptualized and defined, 2) how individuals are classified with DP and 3) which aspects of DP are investigated in the literature. We reviewed 224 peer-reviewed studies of DP. Our analysis of the literature reveals that while DP is predominantly defined as a lifelong face recognition impairment in the absence of acquired brain injury and intellectual/cognitive problems, there is far from consensus on the specifics of the definition with some studies emphasizing e.g., deficits in face perception, discrimination and/or matching as core characteristics of DP. These differences in DP definitions is further reflected in the vast heterogeneity in classification procedures. Only about half of the included studies explicitly state how they classify individuals with DP, and these studies adopt 40 different assessment tools. The two most frequently studied aspects of DP are the role of holistic processing and the specificity of face processing, and alongside a substantial body of neuroimaging studies of DP, this paints a picture of a research field whose scientific interests and aims are rooted in cognitive neuropsychology and neuroscience. We argue that these roots - alongside the heterogeneity in DP definition and classification - may have limited the scope and interest of DP research unnecessarily, and we point to new avenues of research for the field.
Topics: Prosopagnosia; Humans; Facial Recognition; Recognition, Psychology
PubMed: 38795651
DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2024.04.011 -
Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews.... 2016Developmental prosopagnosia (DP) is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by severe face identity recognition problems that results from a failure to develop the... (Review)
Review
Developmental prosopagnosia (DP) is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by severe face identity recognition problems that results from a failure to develop the mechanisms necessary for adequate face processing (Duchaine BC, Nakayama K. Developmental prosopagnosia: a window to content-specific face processing. Curr Opin Neurobiol 2006, 16:166-173.). It occurs in children and adults with normal visual acuity, and without intellectual impairments or known brain injuries. Given the importance of face recognition in daily life, and the detrimental effects of impaired face recognition, DP is an important area of study. Yet conventions for classifying individuals as DP for research purposes are poorly defined. In this focus paper, we discuss: (1) criteria for an operational definition of DP; 2) tests of face recognition and conventions for classifying individuals as DP; and 3) important considerations regarding common associations and dissociations, and cognitive heterogeneity in DP. We also highlight issues unique to studying DP in children, a relatively new endeavor that is proving to be an important complement to the work with adults. Ultimately, we hope to identify challenges researchers face when studying DP, and offer guidelines for others to consider when embarking on their own research pursuits on the topic. For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.
Topics: Adult; Age Factors; Child; Female; Humans; Male; Neuropsychological Tests; Prosopagnosia; Research Design
PubMed: 26681428
DOI: 10.1002/wcs.1374 -
Quarterly Journal of Experimental... Feb 2017Over the last 20 years much attention in the field of face recognition has been directed towards the study of developmental prosopagnosia (DP), with some authors...
Over the last 20 years much attention in the field of face recognition has been directed towards the study of developmental prosopagnosia (DP), with some authors investigating the behavioural characteristics of the condition, and many others using these individuals to further our theoretical understanding of the typical face-processing system. It is broadly agreed that the term "DP" refers to people who have failed to develop the ability to recognize faces in the absence of neurological illness or injury, yet more precise terminology in relation to potential subtypes of the population are yet to be confirmed. Furthermore, specific diagnostic techniques and inclusion and exclusion criteria have yet to be uniformly accepted across the field, making cross-paper comparisons and meta-analyses very difficult. This paper presents an overview of the current challenges that face research into DP and introduces a series of papers that attempt to further our understanding of the condition's characteristics. It is hoped that this special issue will provide a springboard for further research addressing these issues, improving the current state of the art by ensuring the quality of theoretical investigations into DP, and by posing advances that will assist those who have the condition.
Topics: Humans; Prosopagnosia
PubMed: 27251859
DOI: 10.1080/17470218.2016.1195414 -
Cortex; a Journal Devoted To the Study... Oct 2019Current approaches to the diagnosis of developmental prosopagnosia emphasise the perception and identification of same-ethnicity faces. This convention ensures that...
Current approaches to the diagnosis of developmental prosopagnosia emphasise the perception and identification of same-ethnicity faces. This convention ensures that perceptual impairment arising from developmental prosopagnosia can be distinguished from problems arising from a lack of visual experience with particular facial ethnicities - the so-called 'Other-Ethnicity Effect'. The present study sought to determine whether the perceptual difficulties seen in developmental prosopagnosia - diagnosed using same-ethnicity faces - extend to other-ethnicity faces. First, we sought to determine whether a group of Caucasian developmental prosopagnosics (N = 15) and typical Caucasian controls (N = 30) had similar experience with same- and other-ethnicity faces during development. All participants therefore completed a contact questionnaire that enquired about their experience of Caucasian, Black, and East Asian faces, at different developmental stages. Importantly, the two groups described very similar levels of visual experience with other-ethnicity faces. Second, we administered a sequential matching task to measure participants' ability to discriminate same- (Caucasian) and other-ethnicity (Black, East Asian) faces. Relative to the experience-matched controls, the prosopagnosics were less accurate at discriminating both same- and other-ethnicity faces, and we found no evidence of disproportionate impairment for same-ethnicity faces. Given that the prosopagnosics and controls had similar opportunity to develop visual expertise for other-ethnicity faces, these results indicate that developmental prosopagnosia impairs recognition of both same- and other-ethnicity faces. The fact that developmental prosopagnosia affects the perception of both same- and other-ethnicity faces suggests that different facial ethnicities engage similar visual processing mechanisms. Our findings support the view that susceptibility to developmental prosopagnosia, and a lack of contact with other-ethnicity faces, contribute independently to the poor recognition of other-ethnicity faces.
Topics: Adult; Ethnicity; Face; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Neuropsychological Tests; Prosopagnosia; Recognition, Psychology; Visual Perception; Young Adult
PubMed: 31071553
DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2019.04.007 -
Progress in Brain Research 1999
Review
Topics: Brain; Humans; Models, Neurological; Nerve Net; Prosopagnosia
PubMed: 10551026
DOI: 10.1016/s0079-6123(08)63073-3 -
Cortex; a Journal Devoted To the Study... Feb 2003The two papers by Bobes et al. (2003, this issue) and by Sperber and Spinnler (2003, this issue) add to the large body of literature demonstrating covert face... (Review)
Review
The two papers by Bobes et al. (2003, this issue) and by Sperber and Spinnler (2003, this issue) add to the large body of literature demonstrating covert face recognition in prosopagnosia. This viewpoint will offer some perspectives on this interesting phenomenon. First, a re-analysis of the empirical literature will indicate an important misconception concerning the preserved abilities of prosopagnosics. The second section will briefly assess the contribution of Bobes et al. (2003, this issue) and Sperber and Spinnler (2003, this issue) to the debate about the locus, in cognitive terms, of the underlying causal deficit in prosopagnosia with covert face recognition. Both papers make reference to the two main models seeking to explain this phenomenon: the model proposed by Burton and colleagues (Burton et al., 1991; Burton and Young, 1999; Young and Burton, 1999) and that proposed by Farah and colleagues (Farah et al., 1993; O'Reilly and Farah, 1999). Finally, an observation will be offered concerning representations of faces in the Burton et al. (1991) model.
Topics: Face; Humans; Models, Psychological; Pattern Recognition, Visual; Prosopagnosia
PubMed: 12627751
DOI: 10.1016/s0010-9452(08)70072-8 -
Frontiers in Bioscience (Elite Edition) Jun 2014Understanding the human neuro-anatomy of face recognition is a long-standing goal of Cognitive Neuroscience. Studies of patients with face recognition impairment... (Review)
Review
Understanding the human neuro-anatomy of face recognition is a long-standing goal of Cognitive Neuroscience. Studies of patients with face recognition impairment following brain damage (i.e., acquired prosopagnosia) have revealed the specificity of face recognition, the importance and nature of holistic/configural perception of individual faces, and the distribution of this function in the ventral occipito-temporal (VOT) cortex, with a right hemispheric dominance. Yet, neuroimaging studies in this field have essentially focused on a single face-selective area of the VOT and underestimated the right hemisphere superiority. Findings in these studies have also been taken as supporting a hierarchical view of face perception, according to which a face is decomposed into parts in early face-selective areas, these parts being subsequently integrated into a whole representation in higher-order areas. This review takes a historical and current perspective on the study of acquired prosopagnosia and neuroimaging that challenges this latter view. It argues for a combination of these methods, an approach suggesting a coarse-to-fine emergence of the holistic face percept in a non-hierarchical network of cortical face-selective areas.
Topics: Cues; Face; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Models, Neurological; Models, Psychological; Neuroimaging; Prosopagnosia; Recognition, Psychology; Visual Perception
PubMed: 24896206
DOI: 10.2741/E706 -
Cortex; a Journal Devoted To the Study... Sep 2022Two key functions in human face perception are gaze discrimination and identity recognition. Here we examine whether gaze discrimination can be intact when identity...
Two key functions in human face perception are gaze discrimination and identity recognition. Here we examine whether gaze discrimination can be intact when identity recognition is impaired in developmental prosopagnosia (DP). We ran a large sample of developmental prosopagnosics (DPs) with a series of gaze discrimination tasks that assess various mechanisms in gaze processing. Experiment 1 (N = 101 DP participants) investigates spatial processing using an abnormal eye gaze detection task and a Wollaston illusion task that measures perceptual integration of eye and head direction. Experiment 2 (N = 45 DP participants) investigates temporal processing using an adaptation task and a serial dependence task. Despite their deficits with identity recognition, DPs performed in the normal range across both experiments. These results demonstrate that gaze discrimination can be normal in DP, and that various mechanisms of gaze processing can be spared when identity recognition is impaired. Our findings clarify the highly selective nature of impairments in DP and provide support for neurocognitive models of face perception with distinct mechanisms for gaze and identity processing.
Topics: Facial Recognition; Fixation, Ocular; Humans; Pattern Recognition, Visual; Prosopagnosia
PubMed: 35749966
DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2022.05.011 -
Photobiomodulation, Photomedicine, and... Mar 2022Currently treatment for prosopagnosia is limited. We report the reversal of acquired associative-type prosopagnosia (AAP) using quantitative electroencephalography...
Currently treatment for prosopagnosia is limited. We report the reversal of acquired associative-type prosopagnosia (AAP) using quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG)-guided transcranial laser therapy (qGLT) in a subject with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Objective and subjective measures of improvement in AAP, TLE, and MCI are presented. Additional improvement, measured through qEEG, was found 1-month post-treatment. There was no recurrence of AAP for 1 year. We conclude that further research into the utility of qGLT in the treatment of AAP is warranted.
Topics: Cognitive Dysfunction; Electroencephalography; Humans; Laser Therapy; Prosopagnosia
PubMed: 34981964
DOI: 10.1089/photob.2021.0048