A follow-up study of a patient, WJ, with a very severe prosopagnosia is reported. After a stroke he became a farmer and acquired a flock of sheep. He learnt to recognize and name many of his sheep, and his performance on tests of recognition memory and paired-associate learning for sheep was significantly better than on comparable tests using human face stimuli. It is concluded that in some instances prosopagnosia can be a face-specific disorder.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AssalG.FavreC.AnderesJ. P. (1984). Non-reconnaissance d'animaux familiers chez un paysan: Zooagnosie ou prosopagnosie pour les animaux.Revue Neurologique140, 580–584.
2.
BentonA. L.Van AllenM. W. (1968). Impairment in facial recognition in patients with cerebral disease.Cortex4, 344–358.
3.
BodamerJ. (1947). Die Prosop-Agnosie.Archiv für Psychiatrie und Nervenkrankheiten179, 6–53.
4.
BornsteinB. (1963). Prosopagnosia. In HalpernL. (Ed.), Problems of dynamic neurology.Jerusalem: Hadassah Medical School.
5.
BornsteinB.SrokaM.MunitzH. (1969). Prosopagnosia with animal face agnosia.Cortex5, 164–169.
6.
BruceV.YoungA. W. (1986). Understanding face recognition.British Journal of Psychology77, 305–327.
7.
BruyerR.LaterreC.SeronX.FeyereisenP.StrypsteinE.PierrardE.RectemD. (1983). A case of prosopagnosia with some preserved covert remembrance of familiar faces.Brain and Cognition2, 257–284.
8.
DamasioA. R.DamasioH.Van HoesenG. W. (1982). Prosopagnosia: Anatomic basis and behavioral mechanisms.Neurology32, 321–341.
9.
DavidoffJ. B. (1986). The specificity of face perception: Evidence from psychological investigations. In BruyerR. (Ed.), The neuropsychology of face perception and facial expressionHillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
10.
De HaanE. H. F.YoungA. W.NewcombeF. (1987). Face recognition without awareness.Cognitive Neuropsychology4, 385–415.
11.
De RenziE. (1986). Current issues in prosopagnosia. In EllisH. D.JeevesM. A.NewcombeF.YoungA. W. (Eds), Aspects of face processingDordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff243–252.
12.
De RenziE.FaglioniP.GrossiD.NichelliP. (1991). Apperceptive and associative forms of prosopagnosia.Cortex27, 213–221.
13.
McKennaP.WarringtonE. K. (1980). Testing for nominal dysphasia.Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry43, 781–788.
14.
McNeilJ. E.WarringtonE. K. (1991). Prosopagnosia: A reclassification.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology43A, 267–287.
15.
TranelD.DamasioA. R.DamasioH. (1988). Intact recognition of facial expression, gender and age in patients with impaired recognition of face identity.Neurology38, 690–696.
