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Nørkær E, Gobbo S, Roald T, Starrfelt R. Disentangling developmental prosopagnosia: A scoping review of terms, tools and topics. Cortex 2024; 176:161-193. [PMID: 38795651 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2024.04.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2023] [Revised: 03/08/2024] [Accepted: 04/30/2024] [Indexed: 05/28/2024]
Abstract
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.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erling Nørkær
- Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
| | - Silvia Gobbo
- Department of Psychology, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Italy
| | - Tone Roald
- Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
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2
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Monti C, Sozzi M, Bossi F, Corbo M, Rivolta D. Atypical holistic processing of facial identity and expression in a case of acquired prosopagnosia. Cogn Neuropsychol 2020; 36:358-382. [PMID: 31983272 DOI: 10.1080/02643294.2020.1718071] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Abstract
Typical face perception is mediated by holistic processing (i.e., the simultaneous integration of face parts into a whole representation). People with Acquired Prosopagnosia (AP), who have lost the ability to recognise faces after a brain lesion, should thus show atypical holistic coding. Our aim is to use the composite-face effect (CFE) as a measure of holistic processing in ST, a 48-year-old woman with AP but normal recognition of facial expressions of emotions, and matched healthy control participants. Two experiments examining the CFE for identity (Experiment 1) and for expression of emotions (Experiment 2) were conducted. Contrary to controls, in both experiments, ST showed an atypical (i.e., reversed) CFE, thus suggesting altered holistic mechanisms affecting both components of perceptual judgement. Results also suggest that normal facial expression recognition is achievable even with holistic processing difficulties, possibly through compensatory, part-based, mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cecilia Monti
- Department of Neurorehabilitation Sciences, Casa di Cura del Policlinico, Milano, Italy
| | - Matteo Sozzi
- Department of Neurorehabilitation Sciences, Casa di Cura del Policlinico, Milano, Italy.,Department of Neuroscience, Neurology Unit, "A.Manzoni" Hospital, Lecco, Italy
| | | | - Massimo Corbo
- Department of Neurorehabilitation Sciences, Casa di Cura del Policlinico, Milano, Italy
| | - Davide Rivolta
- Department of Education, Psychology and Communication, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy
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Cygan HB, Okuniewska H, Jednoróg K, Marchewka A, Wypych M, Nowicka A. Face processing in a case of high functioning autism with developmental prosopagnosia. Acta Neurobiol Exp (Wars) 2018. [DOI: 10.21307/ane-2018-011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
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Abstract
A longstanding controversy concerns the functional organization of high-level vision, and the extent to which the recognition of different classes of visual stimuli engages a single system or multiple independent systems. We examine this in the context of congenital prosopagnosia (CP), a neurodevelopmental disorder in which individuals, without a history of brain damage, are impaired at face recognition. This paper reviews all CP cases from 1976 to 2016, and explores the evidence for the association or dissociation of face and object recognition. Of the 238 CP cases with data permitting a satisfactory evaluation, 80.3% evinced an association between impaired face and object recognition whereas 19.7% evinced a dissociation. We evaluate the strength of the evidence and correlate the face and object recognition behaviour. We consider the implications for theories of functional organization of the visual system, and offer suggestions for further adjudication of the relationship between face and object recognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jacob Geskin
- a Department of Psychology and Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition , Carnegie Mellon University , Pittsburgh , PA , USA
| | - Marlene Behrmann
- a Department of Psychology and Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition , Carnegie Mellon University , Pittsburgh , PA , USA
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Impairments in the Face-Processing Network in Developmental Prosopagnosia and Semantic Dementia. Cogn Behav Neurol 2016; 28:188-97. [PMID: 26705265 DOI: 10.1097/wnn.0000000000000077] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Developmental prosopagnosia (DP) and semantic dementia (SD) may be the two most common neurologic disorders of face processing, but their main clinical and pathophysiologic differences have not been established. To identify those features, we compared patients with DP and SD. METHODS Five patients with DP, five with right temporal-predominant SD, and ten normal controls underwent cognitive, visual perceptual, and face-processing tasks. RESULTS Although the patients with SD were more cognitively impaired than those with DP, the two groups did not differ statistically on the visual perceptual tests. On the face-processing tasks, the DP group had difficulty with configural analysis and they reported relying on serial, feature-by-feature analysis or awareness of salient features to recognize faces. By contrast, the SD group had problems with person knowledge and made semantically related errors. The SD group had better face familiarity scores, suggesting a potentially useful clinical test for distinguishing SD from DP. CONCLUSIONS These two disorders of face processing represent clinically distinguishable disturbances along a right hemisphere face-processing network: DP, characterized by early configural agnosia for faces, and SD, characterized primarily by a multimodal person knowledge disorder. We discuss these preliminary findings in the context of the current literature on the face-processing network; recent studies suggest an additional right anterior temporal, unimodal face familiarity-memory deficit consistent with an "associative prosopagnosia."
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Barton JJS, Corrow SL. The problem of being bad at faces. Neuropsychologia 2016; 89:119-124. [PMID: 27312748 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2016.06.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 73] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/06/2016] [Revised: 06/08/2016] [Accepted: 06/09/2016] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
Developmental prosopagnosia has received increased attention in recent years, but as yet has no confirmed genetic or structural markers. It is not certain whether this condition reflects simply the low-end of the spectrum of normal face recognition, an 'under-development', or a pathologic failure to develop such mechanisms, a 'mal-development'. This difference in views creates challenges for the diagnosis of developmental prosopagnosia by behavioural criteria alone, which also vary substantially between studies, with secondary effects on issues such as determining its prevalence. After review of the literature and the problems inherent to diagnoses based solely on behavioural data, we propose as a starting discussion point a set of two primary and four secondary criteria for the diagnosis of developmental prosopagnosia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jason J S Barton
- Human Vision and Eye Movement Laboratory, Departments of Medicine (Neurology), Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
| | - Sherryse L Corrow
- Human Vision and Eye Movement Laboratory, Departments of Medicine (Neurology), Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
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7
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Individual differences in face processing captured by ERPs. Int J Psychophysiol 2016; 101:1-8. [DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2015.12.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2015] [Revised: 12/24/2015] [Accepted: 12/29/2015] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
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Rivolta D, Woolgar A, Palermo R, Butko M, Schmalzl L, Williams MA. Multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA) reveals abnormal fMRI activity in both the "core" and "extended" face network in congenital prosopagnosia. Front Hum Neurosci 2014; 8:925. [PMID: 25431556 PMCID: PMC4230164 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2014.00925] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/23/2014] [Accepted: 10/30/2014] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The ability to identify faces is mediated by a network of cortical and subcortical brain regions in humans. It is still a matter of debate which regions represent the functional substrate of congenital prosopagnosia (CP), a condition characterized by a lifelong impairment in face recognition, and affecting around 2.5% of the general population. Here, we used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to measure neural responses to faces, objects, bodies, and body-parts in a group of seven CPs and ten healthy control participants. Using multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA) of the fMRI data we demonstrate that neural activity within the “core” (i.e., occipital face area and fusiform face area) and “extended” (i.e., anterior temporal cortex) face regions in CPs showed reduced discriminability between faces and objects. Reduced differentiation between faces and objects in CP was also seen in the right parahippocampal cortex. In contrast, discriminability between faces and bodies/body-parts and objects and bodies/body-parts across the ventral visual system was typical in CPs. In addition to MVPA analysis, we also ran traditional mass-univariate analysis, which failed to show any group differences in face and object discriminability. In sum, these findings demonstrate (i) face-object representations impairments in CP which encompass both the “core” and “extended” face regions, and (ii) superior power of MVPA in detecting group differences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Davide Rivolta
- School of Psychology, University of East London London, UK ; Perception in Action Research Centre, and ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Department of Cognitive Science, Faculty of Human Sciences, Macquarie University Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Alexandra Woolgar
- Perception in Action Research Centre, and ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Department of Cognitive Science, Faculty of Human Sciences, Macquarie University Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Romina Palermo
- School of Psychology, and ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, University of Western Australia Crawley, WA, Australia
| | - Marina Butko
- Perception in Action Research Centre, and ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Department of Cognitive Science, Faculty of Human Sciences, Macquarie University Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Laura Schmalzl
- Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, University of California San Diego La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - Mark A Williams
- Perception in Action Research Centre, and ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Department of Cognitive Science, Faculty of Human Sciences, Macquarie University Sydney, NSW, Australia
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Connors MH, Barnier AJ, Coltheart M, Langdon R, Cox RE, Rivolta D, Halligan PW. Using hypnosis to disrupt face processing: mirrored-self misidentification delusion and different visual media. Front Hum Neurosci 2014; 8:361. [PMID: 24994973 PMCID: PMC4061730 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2014.00361] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/09/2013] [Accepted: 05/11/2014] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Mirrored-self misidentification delusion is the belief that one's reflection in the mirror is not oneself. This experiment used hypnotic suggestion to impair normal face processing in healthy participants and recreate key aspects of the delusion in the laboratory. From a pool of 439 participants, 22 high hypnotisable participants ("highs") and 20 low hypnotisable participants were selected on the basis of their extreme scores on two separately administered measures of hypnotisability. These participants received a hypnotic induction and a suggestion for either impaired (i) self-face recognition or (ii) impaired recognition of all faces. Participants were tested on their ability to recognize themselves in a mirror and other visual media - including a photograph, live video, and handheld mirror - and their ability to recognize other people, including the experimenter and famous faces. Both suggestions produced impaired self-face recognition and recreated key aspects of the delusion in highs. However, only the suggestion for impaired other-face recognition disrupted recognition of other faces, albeit in a minority of highs. The findings confirm that hypnotic suggestion can disrupt face processing and recreate features of mirrored-self misidentification. The variability seen in participants' responses also corresponds to the heterogeneity seen in clinical patients. An important direction for future research will be to examine sources of this variability within both clinical patients and the hypnotic model.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael H Connors
- ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders Sydney, NSW, Australia ; Department of Cognitive Science, Macquarie University Sydney, NSW, Australia ; Dementia Collaborative Research Centre, School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Amanda J Barnier
- ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders Sydney, NSW, Australia ; Department of Cognitive Science, Macquarie University Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Max Coltheart
- ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders Sydney, NSW, Australia ; Department of Cognitive Science, Macquarie University Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Robyn Langdon
- ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders Sydney, NSW, Australia ; Department of Cognitive Science, Macquarie University Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Rochelle E Cox
- ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders Sydney, NSW, Australia ; Department of Cognitive Science, Macquarie University Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Davide Rivolta
- School of Psychology, University of East London London, UK ; Department of Neurophysiology, Max Planck Institute for Brain Research Frankfurt am Main, Germany ; Ernst Strüngmann Institute for Neuroscience in Cooperation with Max Planck Society Frankfurt am Main, Germany
| | - Peter W Halligan
- ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders Sydney, NSW, Australia ; School of Psychology, Cardiff University Cardiff, UK
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Németh K, Zimmer M, Schweinberger SR, Vakli P, Kovács G. The background of reduced face specificity of N170 in congenital prosopagnosia. PLoS One 2014; 9:e101393. [PMID: 24983881 PMCID: PMC4077801 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0101393] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2014] [Accepted: 06/06/2014] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Congenital prosopagnosia is lifelong face-recognition impairment in the absence of evidence for structural brain damage. To study the neural correlates of congenital prosopagnosia, we measured the face-sensitive N170 component of the event-related potential in three members of the same family (father (56 y), son (25 y) and daughter (22 y)) and in age-matched neurotypical participants (young controls: n = 14; 24.5 y±2.1; old controls: n = 6; 57.3 y±5.4). To compare the face sensitivity of N170 in congenital prosopagnosic and neurotypical participants we measured the event-related potentials for faces and phase-scrambled random noise stimuli. In neurotypicals we found significantly larger N170 amplitude for faces compared to noise stimuli, reflecting normal early face processing. The congenital prosopagnosic participants, by contrast, showed reduced face sensitivity of the N170, and this was due to a larger than normal noise-elicited N170, rather than to a smaller face-elicited N170. Interestingly, single-trial analysis revealed that the lack of face sensitivity in congenital prosopagnosia is related to a larger oscillatory power and phase-locking in the theta frequency-band (4-7 Hz, 130-190 ms) as well as to a lower intertrial jitter of the response latency for the noise stimuli. Altogether, these results suggest that congenital prosopagnosia is due to the deficit of early, structural encoding steps of face perception in filtering between face and non-face stimuli.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kornél Németh
- Department of Cognitive Science, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Márta Zimmer
- Department of Cognitive Science, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Stefan R. Schweinberger
- Institute of Psychology, Friedrich-Schiller-University of Jena, Jena, Germany
- DFG Research Unit Person Perception, Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, Jena, Germany
| | - Pál Vakli
- Department of Cognitive Science, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Gyula Kovács
- Department of Cognitive Science, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary
- Institute of Psychology, Friedrich-Schiller-University of Jena, Jena, Germany
- DFG Research Unit Person Perception, Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, Jena, Germany
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11
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Bate S, Cook SJ, Duchaine B, Tree JJ, Burns EJ, Hodgson TL. Intranasal inhalation of oxytocin improves face processing in developmental prosopagnosia. Cortex 2013; 50:55-63. [PMID: 24074457 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2013.08.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 53] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/17/2012] [Revised: 05/20/2013] [Accepted: 08/16/2013] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
Abstract
Developmental prosopagnosia (DP) is characterised by a severe lifelong impairment in face recognition. In recent years it has become clear that DP affects a substantial number of people, yet little work has attempted to improve face processing in these individuals. Intriguingly, recent evidence suggests that intranasal inhalation of the hormone oxytocin can improve face processing in unimpaired participants, and we investigated whether similar findings might be noted in DP. Ten adults with DP and 10 matched controls were tested using a randomized placebo-controlled double-blind within-subject experimental design (AB-BA). Each participant took part in two testing sessions separated by a 14-25 day interval. In each session, participants inhaled 24 IU of oxytocin or placebo spray, followed by a 45 min resting period to allow central oxytocin levels to plateau. Participants then completed two face processing tests: one assessing memory for a set of newly encoded faces, and one measuring the ability to match simultaneously presented faces according to identity. Participants completed the Multidimensional Mood Questionnaire (MMQ) at three points in each testing session to assess the possible mood-altering effects of oxytocin and to control for attention and wakefulness. Statistical comparisons revealed an improvement for DP but not control participants on both tests in the oxytocin condition, and analysis of scores on the MMQ indicated that the effect cannot be attributed to changes in mood, attention or wakefulness. This investigation provides the first evidence that oxytocin can improve face processing in DP, and the potential neural underpinnings of the findings are discussed alongside their implications for the treatment of face processing disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah Bate
- Psychology Research Centre, Bournemouth University, UK.
| | - Sarah J Cook
- Dorset Healthcare University Foundation Trust, Bournemouth, UK
| | - Bradley Duchaine
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, USA
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12
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Gobbini MI, Gors JD, Halchenko YO, Rogers C, Guntupalli JS, Hughes H, Cipolli C. Prioritized Detection of Personally Familiar Faces. PLoS One 2013; 8:e66620. [PMID: 23805248 PMCID: PMC3689778 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0066620] [Citation(s) in RCA: 69] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/07/2013] [Accepted: 05/08/2013] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
We investigated whether personally familiar faces are preferentially processed in conditions of reduced attentional resources and in the absence of conscious awareness. In the first experiment, we used Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) to test the susceptibility of familiar faces and faces of strangers to the attentional blink. In the second experiment, we used continuous flash interocular suppression to render stimuli invisible and measured face detection time for personally familiar faces as compared to faces of strangers. In both experiments we found an advantage for detection of personally familiar faces as compared to faces of strangers. Our data suggest that the identity of faces is processed with reduced attentional resources and even in the absence of awareness. Our results show that this facilitated processing of familiar faces cannot be attributed to detection of low-level visual features and that a learned unique configuration of facial features can influence preconscious perceptual processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria Ida Gobbini
- Dipartimento di Medicina Specialistica, Diagnostica e Sperimentale, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, United States of America
- * E-mail:
| | - Jason D. Gors
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, United States of America
| | - Yaroslav O. Halchenko
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, United States of America
| | - Courtney Rogers
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, United States of America
| | - J. Swaroop Guntupalli
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, United States of America
| | - Howard Hughes
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, United States of America
| | - Carlo Cipolli
- Dipartimento di Medicina Specialistica, Diagnostica e Sperimentale, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
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Drane DL, Ojemann JG, Phatak V, Loring DW, Gross RE, Hebb AO, Silbergeld DL, Miller JW, Voets NL, Saindane AM, Barsalou L, Meador KJ, Ojemann GA, Tranel D. Famous face identification in temporal lobe epilepsy: support for a multimodal integration model of semantic memory. Cortex 2013; 49:1648-67. [PMID: 23040175 PMCID: PMC3679345 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2012.08.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 71] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/06/2012] [Revised: 04/26/2012] [Accepted: 08/22/2012] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
This study aims to demonstrate that the left and right anterior temporal lobes (ATLs) perform critical but unique roles in famous face identification, with damage to either leading to differing deficit patterns reflecting decreased access to lexical or semantic concepts but not their degradation. Famous face identification was studied in 22 presurgical and 14 postsurgical temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) patients and 20 healthy comparison subjects using free recall and multiple choice (MC) paradigms. Right TLE patients exhibited presurgical deficits in famous face recognition, and postsurgical deficits in both famous face recognition and familiarity judgments. However, they did not exhibit any problems with naming before or after surgery. In contrast, left TLE patients demonstrated both pre- and postsurgical deficits in famous face naming but no significant deficits in recognition or familiarity. Double dissociations in performance between groups were alleviated by altering task demands. Postsurgical right TLE patients provided with MC options correctly identified greater than 70% of famous faces they initially rated as unfamiliar. Left TLE patients accurately chose the name for nearly all famous faces they recognized (based on their verbal description) but initially failed to name, although they tended to rapidly lose access to this name. We believe alterations in task demands activate alternative routes to semantic and lexical networks, demonstrating that unique pathways to such stored information exist, and suggesting a different role for each ATL in identifying visually presented famous faces. The right ATL appears to play a fundamental role in accessing semantic information from a visual route, with the left ATL serving to link semantic information to the language system to produce a specific name. These findings challenge several assumptions underlying amodal models of semantic memory, and provide support for the integrated multimodal theories of semantic memory and a distributed representation of concepts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel L Drane
- Department of Neurology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA.
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14
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Bate S, Cook SJ, Mole J, Cole J. First report of generalized face processing difficulties in möbius sequence. PLoS One 2013; 8:e62656. [PMID: 23638131 PMCID: PMC3634771 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0062656] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/21/2012] [Accepted: 03/22/2013] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Reverse simulation models of facial expression recognition suggest that we recognize the emotions of others by running implicit motor programmes responsible for the production of that expression. Previous work has tested this theory by examining facial expression recognition in participants with Möbius sequence, a condition characterized by congenital bilateral facial paralysis. However, a mixed pattern of findings has emerged, and it has not yet been tested whether these individuals can imagine facial expressions, a process also hypothesized to be underpinned by proprioceptive feedback from the face. We investigated this issue by examining expression recognition and imagery in six participants with Möbius sequence, and also carried out tests assessing facial identity and object recognition, as well as basic visual processing. While five of the six participants presented with expression recognition impairments, only one was impaired at the imagery of facial expressions. Further, five participants presented with other difficulties in the recognition of facial identity or objects, or in lower-level visual processing. We discuss the implications of our findings for the reverse simulation model, and suggest that facial identity recognition impairments may be more severe in the condition than has previously been noted.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah Bate
- Psychology Research Centre, Bournemouth University, Poole, United Kingdom.
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15
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What is Overt and what is Covert in Congenital Prosopagnosia? Neuropsychol Rev 2012; 23:111-6. [DOI: 10.1007/s11065-012-9223-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/08/2012] [Accepted: 11/07/2012] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
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Rivolta D, Palermo R, Schmalzl L, Williams MA. Investigating the features of the m170 in congenital prosopagnosia. Front Hum Neurosci 2012; 6:45. [PMID: 22416228 PMCID: PMC3298857 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2012.00045] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/10/2011] [Accepted: 02/22/2012] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Face perception generates specific neural activity as early as 170 ms post-stimulus onset, termed the M170 when measured with Magnetoencephalography (MEG). We examined the M170 in six people with congenital prosopagnosia (CP) and 11 typical controls. Previous research indicates that there are two neural generators for the M170 (one within the right lateral occipital area - rLO and one within the right fusiform gyrus - rFG), and in the current study we explored whether these sources reflect the processing of different types of information. Individuals with CP showed face-selective M170 responses within the rLO and right rFG, which did not differ in magnitude to those of the controls. To examine possible links between neural activity and behavior we correlated the CPs' MEG activity generated within rLO and rFG with their face perception skills. The rLO-M170 correlated with holistic/configural face processing, whereas the rFG-M170 correlated with featural processing. Hence, the results of our study demonstrate that individuals with CP can show an M170 that is within the normal range, and that the M170 in the rLO and rFG are involved in different aspects of face processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Davide Rivolta
- Department of Cognitive Science, Macquarie University Sydney, NSW, Australia
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Palermo R, Rivolta D, Wilson CE, Jeffery L. Adaptive face space coding in congenital prosopagnosia: typical figural aftereffects but abnormal identity aftereffects. Neuropsychologia 2011; 49:3801-12. [PMID: 21986295 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2011.09.039] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/12/2011] [Revised: 09/21/2011] [Accepted: 09/26/2011] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
People with congenital prosopagnosia (CP) report difficulty recognising faces in everyday life and perform poorly on face recognition tests. Here, we investigate whether impaired adaptive face space coding might contribute to poor face recognition in CP. To pinpoint how adaptation may affect face processing, a group of CPs and matched controls completed two complementary face adaptation tasks: the figural aftereffect, which reflects adaptation to general distortions of shape, and the identity aftereffect, which directly taps the mechanisms involved in the discrimination of different face identities. CPs displayed a typical figural aftereffect, consistent with evidence that they are able to process some shape-based information from faces, e.g., cues to discriminate sex. CPs also demonstrated a significant identity aftereffect. However, unlike controls, CPs impression of the identity of the neutral average face was not significantly shifted by adaptation, suggesting that adaptive coding of identity is abnormal in CP. In sum, CPs show reduced aftereffects but only when the task directly taps the use of face norms used to code individual identity. This finding of a reduced face identity aftereffect in individuals with severe face recognition problems is consistent with suggestions that adaptive coding may have a functional role in face recognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Romina Palermo
- Department of Psychology, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia.
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Rivolta D, Palermo R, Schmalzl L, Coltheart M. Covert face recognition in congenital prosopagnosia: a group study. Cortex 2011; 48:344-52. [PMID: 21329915 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2011.01.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/04/2010] [Revised: 10/20/2010] [Accepted: 01/13/2011] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Even though people with congenital prosopagnosia (CP) never develop a normal ability to "overtly" recognize faces, some individuals show indices of "covert" (or implicit) face recognition. The aim of this study was to demonstrate covert face recognition in CP when participants could not overtly recognize the faces. METHODS Eleven people with CP completed three tasks assessing their overt face recognition ability, and three tasks assessing their "covert" face recognition: a Forced choice familiarity task, a Forced choice cued task, and a Priming task. RESULTS Evidence of covert recognition was observed with the Forced choice familiarity task, but not the Priming task. In addition, we propose that the Forced choice cued task does not measure covert processing as such, but instead "provoked-overt" recognition. CONCLUSIONS Our study clearly shows that people with CP demonstrate covert recognition for faces that they cannot overtly recognize, and that behavioural tasks vary in their sensitivity to detect covert recognition in CP.
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Affiliation(s)
- Davide Rivolta
- Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science (MACCS), Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.
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