Prosopagnosics have widespread selectivity reductions

Authors: Guo Jiahui, Hua Yang, and Bradley Duchaine

People with developmental prosopagnosia (DP) have extremely poor face recognition and even have problems recognizing the faces of family and close friends. Jiahui Guo and colleagues carried out a comprehensive investigation of the neural basis of DP by comparing brain responses to multiple visual categories in DPs and people with normal face processing. The DPs showed widespread abnormalities in areas specialized for face processing and areas that respond preferentially to scenes and bodies. The abnormalities in scene and body areas indicate cortical problems in many DPs extend beyond face areas and open the door to investigations of developmental disorders impacting recognition of categories other than faces.

Article appears in July 2018 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.