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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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Manippa V, Palmisano A, Ventura M, Rivolta D. The Neural Correlates of Developmental Prosopagnosia: Twenty-Five Years on. Brain Sci 2023; 13:1399. [PMID: 37891769 PMCID: PMC10605188 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci13101399] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/08/2023] [Revised: 09/21/2023] [Accepted: 09/29/2023] [Indexed: 10/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Faces play a crucial role in social interactions. Developmental prosopagnosia (DP) refers to the lifelong difficulty in recognizing faces despite the absence of obvious signs of brain lesions. In recent decades, the neural substrate of this condition has been extensively investigated. While early neuroimaging studies did not reveal significant functional and structural abnormalities in the brains of individuals with developmental prosopagnosia (DPs), recent evidence identifies abnormalities at multiple levels within DPs' face-processing networks. The current work aims to provide an overview of the convergent and contrasting findings by examining twenty-five years of neuroimaging literature on the anatomo-functional correlates of DP. We included 55 original papers, including 63 studies that compared the brain structure (MRI) and activity (fMRI, EEG, MEG) of healthy control participants and DPs. Despite variations in methods, procedures, outcomes, sample selection, and study design, this scoping review suggests that morphological, functional, and electrophysiological features characterize DPs' brains, primarily within the ventral visual stream. Particularly, the functional and anatomical connectivity between the Fusiform Face Area and the other face-sensitive regions seems strongly impaired. The cognitive and clinical implications as well as the limitations of these findings are discussed in light of the available knowledge and challenges in the context of DP.
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Affiliation(s)
- Valerio Manippa
- Department of Education, Psychology and Communication, University of Bari Aldo Moro, 70122 Bari, Italy; (V.M.); (A.P.); (M.V.)
| | - Annalisa Palmisano
- Department of Education, Psychology and Communication, University of Bari Aldo Moro, 70122 Bari, Italy; (V.M.); (A.P.); (M.V.)
- Chair of Lifespan Developmental Neuroscience, TUD Dresden University of Technology, 01069 Dresden, Germany
| | - Martina Ventura
- Department of Education, Psychology and Communication, University of Bari Aldo Moro, 70122 Bari, Italy; (V.M.); (A.P.); (M.V.)
- The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour, and Development, Western Sydney University, Sydney 2145, Australia
| | - Davide Rivolta
- Department of Education, Psychology and Communication, University of Bari Aldo Moro, 70122 Bari, Italy; (V.M.); (A.P.); (M.V.)
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de Gelder B, Van den Stock J. Face specificity of developmental prosopagnosia, moving beyond the debate on face specificity. Cogn Neuropsychol 2019; 35:87-89. [PMID: 29658420 DOI: 10.1080/02643294.2018.1441818] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/17/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Beatrice de Gelder
- a Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Department of Cognitive Neurosciences , Maastricht University , Maastricht , The Netherlands
| | - Jan Van den Stock
- b Department of Neurosciences , Laboratory for Translational Neuropsychiatry , Leuven , Belgium
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Looking but not seeing: Increased eye fixations in behavioural-variant frontotemporal dementia. Cortex 2018; 103:71-81. [PMID: 29573594 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2018.02.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/02/2017] [Revised: 02/02/2018] [Accepted: 02/19/2018] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
Face processing plays a central role in human communication, with the eye region a particularly important cue for discriminating emotions. Indeed, reduced attention to the eyes has been argued to underlie social deficits in a number of clinical populations. Despite well-established impairments in facial affect recognition in behavioural-variant frontotemporal dementia, whether these patients also have perturbed facial scanning is yet to be investigated. The current study employed eye tracking to record visual scanning of faces in 20 behavioural-variant frontotemporal dementia patients and 21 controls. Remarkably, behavioural-variant frontotemporal dementia patients displayed more fixations to the eyes of emotional faces, compared to controls. Neural regions associated with fixations to the eyes included the left inferior frontal gyrus, right cerebellum and middle temporal gyrus. Our study is the first to show such compensatory functions in behavioural-variant frontotemporal dementia and suggest a feedback-style network, including anterior and posterior brain regions, is involved in early face processing.
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Face shape and face identity processing in behavioral variant fronto-temporal dementia: A specific deficit for familiarity and name recognition of famous faces. NEUROIMAGE-CLINICAL 2016; 11:368-377. [PMID: 27298765 PMCID: PMC4893012 DOI: 10.1016/j.nicl.2016.03.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/10/2015] [Revised: 01/22/2016] [Accepted: 03/01/2016] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
Deficits in face processing have been described in the behavioral variant of fronto-temporal dementia (bvFTD), primarily regarding the recognition of facial expressions. Less is known about face shape and face identity processing. Here we used a hierarchical strategy targeting face shape and face identity recognition in bvFTD and matched healthy controls. Participants performed 3 psychophysical experiments targeting face shape detection (Experiment 1), unfamiliar face identity matching (Experiment 2), familiarity categorization and famous face-name matching (Experiment 3). The results revealed group differences only in Experiment 3, with a deficit in the bvFTD group for both familiarity categorization and famous face-name matching. Voxel-based morphometry regression analyses in the bvFTD group revealed an association between grey matter volume of the left ventral anterior temporal lobe and familiarity recognition, while face-name matching correlated with grey matter volume of the bilateral ventral anterior temporal lobes. Subsequently, we quantified familiarity-specific and name-specific recognition deficits as the sum of the celebrities of which respectively only the name or only the familiarity was accurately recognized. Both indices were associated with grey matter volume of the bilateral anterior temporal cortices. These findings extent previous results by documenting the involvement of the left anterior temporal lobe (ATL) in familiarity detection and the right ATL in name recognition deficits in fronto-temporal lobar degeneration. Face outline and face identity recognition was tested in behavioral variant FTD Deficits were observed in recognition of famous but not unfamiliar faces The deficit comprised both familiarity and name recognition Both deficits related to structural integrity of bilateral anterio-temporal cortex
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Li J, Dong M, Ren A, Ren J, Zhang J, Huang L. Structural attributes of the temporal lobe predict face recognition ability in youth. Neuropsychologia 2016; 84:1-6. [PMID: 26802942 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2016.01.024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/08/2015] [Revised: 01/06/2016] [Accepted: 01/19/2016] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
The face recognition ability varies across individuals. However, it remains elusive how brain anatomical structure is related to the face recognition ability in healthy subjects. In this study, we adopted voxel-based morphometry analysis and machine learning approach to investigate the neural basis of individual face recognition ability using anatomical magnetic resonance imaging. We demonstrated that the gray matter volume (GMV) of the right ventral anterior temporal lobe (vATL), an area sensitive to face identity, is significant positively correlated with the subject's face recognition ability which was measured by the Cambridge face memory test (CFMT) score. Furthermore, the predictive model established by the balanced cross-validation combined with linear regression method revealed that the right vATL GMV can predict subjects' face ability. However, the subjects' Cambridge face memory test scores cannot be predicted by the GMV of the face processing network core brain regions including the right occipital face area (OFA) and the right face fusion area (FFA). Our results suggest that the right vATL may play an important role in face recognition and might provide insight into the neural mechanisms underlying face recognition deficits in patients with pathophysiological conditions such as prosopagnosia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jun Li
- School of Life Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710071, China
| | - Minghao Dong
- School of Life Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710071, China
| | - Aifeng Ren
- School of Electronic Engineering, Xidian University, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710071, China
| | - Junchan Ren
- School of Life Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710071, China
| | - Jinsong Zhang
- Department of Radiology, Xijing Hospital, The Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710032, China.
| | - Liyu Huang
- School of Life Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710071, China.
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de Gelder B, Tamietto M, Pegna AJ, Van den Stock J. Visual imagery influences brain responses to visual stimulation in bilateral cortical blindness. Cortex 2015; 72:15-26. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2014.11.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2014] [Revised: 08/29/2014] [Accepted: 11/18/2014] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
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de Gelder B, Huis in ‘t Veld EMJ, Van den Stock J. The Facial Expressive Action Stimulus Test. A test battery for the assessment of face memory, face and object perception, configuration processing, and facial expression recognition. Front Psychol 2015; 6:1609. [PMID: 26579004 PMCID: PMC4624856 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01609] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/22/2015] [Accepted: 10/05/2015] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
There are many ways to assess face perception skills. In this study, we describe a novel task battery FEAST (Facial Expressive Action Stimulus Test) developed to test recognition of identity and expressions of human faces as well as stimulus control categories. The FEAST consists of a neutral and emotional face memory task, a face and shoe identity matching task, a face and house part-to-whole matching task, and a human and animal facial expression matching task. The identity and part-to-whole matching tasks contain both upright and inverted conditions. The results provide reference data of a healthy sample of controls in two age groups for future users of the FEAST.
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Affiliation(s)
- Beatrice de Gelder
- Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Maastricht UniversityMaastricht, Netherlands
- Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, University of Cape TownCape Town, South Africa
| | - Elisabeth M. J. Huis in ‘t Veld
- Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Maastricht UniversityMaastricht, Netherlands
- Department of Medical and Clinical Psychology, Tilburg UniversityTilburg, Netherlands
| | - Jan Van den Stock
- Laboratory for Translational Neuropsychiatry, Department of Neurosciences, KU LeuvenLeuven, Belgium
- Old Age Psychiatry, University Hospitals LeuvenLeuven, Belgium
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Van den Stock J, Tamietto M, Hervais-Adelman A, Pegna AJ, de Gelder B. Body recognition in a patient with bilateral primary visual cortex lesions. Biol Psychiatry 2015; 77:e31-3. [PMID: 23993209 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2013.06.023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/24/2013] [Revised: 06/27/2013] [Accepted: 06/29/2013] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Jan Van den Stock
- Brain and Emotion Laboratory Leuven (BELL), Division of Psychiatry, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Marco Tamietto
- Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, the Netherlands
| | - Alexis Hervais-Adelman
- Functional Brain Mapping Laboratory, Geneva University Hospitals; Laboratory of Experimental Neuropsychology, Neurology Clinic, Geneva University Hospitals
| | - Alan J Pegna
- Laboratory of Experimental Neuropsychology, Neurology Clinic, Geneva University Hospitals; Faculty of Psychology and Educational Science, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Beatrice de Gelder
- Brain and Emotion Laboratory Leuven (BELL), Division of Psychiatry, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, the Netherlands.
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Van den Stock J, Tamietto M, Zhan M, Heinecke A, Hervais-Adelman A, Legrand LB, Pegna AJ, de Gelder B. Neural correlates of body and face perception following bilateral destruction of the primary visual cortices. Front Behav Neurosci 2014; 8:30. [PMID: 24592218 PMCID: PMC3923138 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2014.00030] [Citation(s) in RCA: 46] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/14/2013] [Accepted: 01/20/2014] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Non-conscious visual processing of different object categories was investigated in a rare patient with bilateral destruction of the visual cortex (V1) and clinical blindness over the entire visual field. Images of biological and non-biological object categories were presented consisting of human bodies, faces, butterflies, cars, and scrambles. Behaviorally, only the body shape induced higher perceptual sensitivity, as revealed by signal detection analysis. Passive exposure to bodies and faces activated amygdala and superior temporal sulcus. In addition, bodies also activated the extrastriate body area, insula, orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and cerebellum. The results show that following bilateral damage to the primary visual cortex and ensuing complete cortical blindness, the human visual system is able to process categorical properties of human body shapes. This residual vision may be based on V1-independent input to body-selective areas along the ventral stream, in concert with areas involved in the representation of bodily states, like insula, OFC, and cerebellum.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jan Van den Stock
- Brain and Emotion Laboratory Leuven, Division of Psychiatry, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven Leuven, Belgium
| | - Marco Tamietto
- Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Laboratory, and CoRPS - Center of Research on Psychology in Somatic Diseases - Tilburg University Tilburg, Netherlands ; Department of Psychology, University of Torino Torino, Italy
| | - Minye Zhan
- Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University Maastricht, Netherlands
| | | | | | - Lore B Legrand
- Laboratory of Experimental Neuropsychology, Neuropsychology Unit and Department of Neurology, Geneva University Hospitals Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Alan J Pegna
- Faculty of Psychology and Educational Science, University of Geneva Geneva, Switzerland ; Laboratory of Experimental Neuropsychology, Neuropsychology Unit and Department of Neurology, Geneva University Hospitals Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Beatrice de Gelder
- Brain and Emotion Laboratory Leuven, Division of Psychiatry, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven Leuven, Belgium ; Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Laboratory, and CoRPS - Center of Research on Psychology in Somatic Diseases - Tilburg University Tilburg, Netherlands ; Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University Maastricht, Netherlands
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Huis in 't Veld E, Van den Stock J, de Gelder B. Configuration perception and face memory, and face context effects in developmental prosopagnosia. Cogn Neuropsychol 2012. [DOI: 10.1080/02643294.2012.732051] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
Affiliation(s)
| | - Jan Van den Stock
- b Brain and Emotion Laboratory Leuven (BELL), Division of Psychiatry, Department of Neurosciences , KU Leuven, Leuven , Belgium
| | - Beatrice de Gelder
- a Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Laboratory , Tilburg University , Tilburg , The Netherlands
- b Brain and Emotion Laboratory Leuven (BELL), Division of Psychiatry, Department of Neurosciences , KU Leuven, Leuven , Belgium
- c Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience , Maastricht University , Maastricht , The Netherlands
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