Evidence suggests that face and object recognition depend on distinct neural circuitry within the visual system. Work with adults with developmental prosopagnosia (DP) demonstrates that some individuals have preserved object recognition despite severe face recognition deficits. This face selectivity in adults with DP indicates that face- and object-processing systems can develop independently, but it is unclear at what point in development these mechanisms are separable. Determining when individuals with DP first show dissociations between faces and objects is one means to address this question. In the current study, we investigated face and object processing in six children with DP (5–12-years-old). Each child was assessed with one face perception test, two different face memory tests, and two object memory tests that were matched to the face memory tests in format and difficulty. Scores from the DP children on the matched face and object tasks were compared to within-subject data from age-matched controls. Four of the six DP children, including the 5-year-old, showed evidence of face-specific deficits, while one child appeared to have more general visual-processing deficits. The remaining child had inconsistent results. The presence of face-specific deficits in children with DP suggests that face and object perception depend on dissociable processes in childhood.
ArielR., & SadehM. (1996). Congenital visual agnosia and prosopagnosia in a child. Cortex, 12, 76–82.
2.
BehrmannM., & AvidanG. (2005). Congenital prosopagnosia: Face-blind from birth. Trends in Cogntive Sciences, 9(4), 180–187.
3.
BentinS., AllisonT., PuceA., PerezE., & McCarthyG. (1996). Electrophysiological studies of face perception in humans. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 8(6), 551–565.
4.
BentinS., DeouellL. Y., & SorokerN. (1999). Selective visual streaming in face recognition: Evidence from developmental prosopagnosia. Neuroreport, 10(4), 823–827.
5.
BodamerJ. (1947). Die prosop-agnosia. Archiv fur Psychiatrie und Nervenkrankheiten, 179, 6–53.
6.
BotzelK., SchulzeS., & StodieckS. (1995). Scalp topography and analysis of intracranial sources of face-evoked potentials. Experimental Brain Research, 104, 135–143.
7.
BruceV., & YoungA. (1986). Understanding face recognition. British Journal of Psychology, 77, 305–327.
8.
BrunsdonR., ColtheartM., NickelsL., & JoyP. (2006). Developmental prosopagnosia. A case analysis and treatment study. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 23(6), 822–840.
9.
BusignyT., JoubertS., FelicianO., CeccaldiM., & RossionB. (2010). Holistic perception of the individual face is specific an necessary: Evidence from an extensive case study of acquired prosopagnosia. Neuropsychologia, 48, 4057–4092.
10.
CantlonJ., PinelP., DehaeneS., & PelphreyK. (2011). Cortical representations of symbols, objects, and faces are pruned back during early childhood. Cerebral Cortex, 21(1), 191–199.
11.
CareyS., & DiamondR. (1977). From piecemeal to configurational representation of faces. Science, 195(4275), 312–314.
12.
ChatterjeeG., & NakayamaK. (2012). Normal facial age and gender perception in developmental prosopagnosia. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 29(5–6), 482–502.
13.
CrawfordJ., & GarthwaiteP. (2002). Investigation of the single case in neuropsychology: Confidence limits on the abnormality of test scores and test score differences. Neuropsychologia, 40, 1196–1208.
14.
CrawfordJ., & GarthwaiteP. (2007). Comparison of a single case to a control or normative sample in neuropsychology: Development of a Bayesian approach. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 24(4), 343–372.
15.
CrawfordJ., GarthwaiteP., & HowellD. (2009). On comparing a single case with a control sample: An alternative perspective. Neuropsychologia, 47(13), 2690–2695.
16.
CrawfordJ., GarthwaiteP., & PorterS. (2010). Point and interval estimates of effect sizes for the case-controls design in neuropsychology: Rationale, methods, implementations, and proposed reporting standards. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 27, 245–260.
17.
CrawfordJ., GarthwaiteP., & RyanK. (2011). Comparing a single case to a control sample: Testing for neuropsychological deficits and dissociatios in the presence of covariates. Cortex, 47, 1166–1178.
18.
CrawfordJ., & HowellD. (1998). Comparing an individual's test score against norms derived from small samples. The Clinical Neuropsychologist, 12(4), 482–486.
19.
CrookesK., & McKoneE. (2009). Early maturity of face recognition: No childhood development of holistic processing, novel face encoding, or face-space. Cognition, 111(2), 219–247.
20.
DalrympleK., GarridoL., & DuchaineB. (2014). Dissociation between face perception and face memory in adults, but not children, with developmental prosopagnosia. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 10, 10–20.
21.
DalrympleK., GomezJ., & DuchaineB. (2013). The Dartmouth Database of Children's Faces: Acquisition and validation of a new face stimulus set. PLoS ONE, 8(11), e79131.
22.
de HaanE. H., & CampbellR. (1991). A fifteen year follow-up of a case of developmental prosopagnosia. Cortex, 27, 489–509.
23.
deHeeringA., & RossionB. (2015). Rapid categorization of natural face images in the infant right hemisphere. eLife, 4(e06564), 1–14.
24.
de HeeringA., RossionB., & MaurerD. (2012). Developmental changes in face recognition during childhood: Evidence from upright and inverted faces. Cognitive Development, 27(1), 17–27.
25.
DennettH. W., McKoneE., TavashmiR., HallA., PidcockM., EdwardsM., & DuchaineB. (2012). The Cambridge Car Memory Test: A task matched in format to the Cambridge Face Memory Test, with norms, reliability, sex differences, dissociations from face memory, and expertise effects. Behavior Research Methods, 44(2), 587–605.
26.
DuchaineB., GermineL., & NakayamaK. (2007). Family resemblance: Ten family members with prosopagnosia and within-class object agnosia. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 24, 419–430.
27.
DuchaineB., MurrayH., TurnerM., WhiteS., & GarridoL. (2009). Normal social cognition in developmental prosopagnosia. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 26(7), 620–634.
28.
DuchaineB., & NakayamaK. (2005). Dissociations of face and object recognition in developmental prosopagnosia. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 17(2), 249–261.
29.
DuchaineB., & NakayamaK. (2006a). The Cambridge Face Memory Test: Results from neurologically intact individuals and an investigation of its validity using inverted stimuli and prosopagnosic participants. Neuropsychologia, 44(4), 576–585.
30.
DuchaineB., & NakayamaK. (2006b). Developmental prosopagnosia: A window to content-specific face processing. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 16, 166–173.
31.
DuchaineB., Nieminen-von WendtT., NewJ., & KulomakiT. (2003). Dissociations of visual recognition in a developmental agnosic: Evidence for separate developmental processes. Neurocase, 9, 380–389.
32.
DuchaineB., ParkerH., & NakayamaK. (2003). Normal recognition of emotion in a prosopagnosic. Perception, 32, 827–838.
33.
DuchaineB., & YovelG. (2015). Neural mechanisms of face processing: An updated framework. Annual Review of Vision Science, 1, 393–416.
34.
DuchaineB., YovelG., ButterworthE., & NakayamaK. (2006). Prosopagnosia as an impairment to face-specific mechanisms: Elimination of the alternative hypotheses in a developmental case. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 23(5), 714–747.
35.
FarahM. J., LevinsonK., & KleinK. (1995). Face perception and within-category discrimination in prosopagnosia. Neuropsychologia, 33(6), 661–674.
36.
FarahM. J., WilsonK. D., DrainH. M., & TanakaJ. (1995). The inverted face inversion effect in prosopagnosia: Evidence for mandatory, face-specific perceptual mechanisms. Vision Research, 35(14), 2089–2093.
37.
GalaburdaA., & KemperT. (1979). Cytoarchitectomic abnormalities in developmental dyslexia: A case study. Annals of Neurology, 6, 94–100.
38.
GalaburdaA., ShermanG., RosenG., AboitizF., & GeschwindN. (1985). Developmental dyslexia: Four consecutive patients with cortical anomalies. Annals of Neurology, 18(2), 222–233.
39.
GarridoL., DuchaineB., & NakayamaK. (2008). Face detection in normal and prosopagnosic individuals. Journal of Neuropsychology, 47, 123–131.
40.
GarridoL., FurlN., DraganskiB., WeiskopfN., StevensJ., TanG., … DuchaineB. (2009). Voxel-based morphometry reveals reduced grey matter volume in the temporal cortex of developmental prosopagnosics. Brain, 132, 3443–3455.
41.
GermineL., CashdollarN., DüzelE., & DuchaineB. (2011). A new selective developmental deficit: Impaired object recognition with normal face recognition. Cortex, 47(5), 598–607.
42.
GermineL. T., DuchaineB., & NakayamaK. (2011). Where cognitive development and aging meet: Face learning ability peaks after age 30. Cognition, 118(2), 201–210.
43.
Gilaie-DotanS., PerryA., BonnehY., MalachR., & BentinS. (2009). Seeing with profoundly deactivated mid-level visual areas: Non-hierarchical functioning in the human visual cortex. Cerebral Cortex, 19, 1687–1703.
44.
GolaraiG., GhahremaniD. G., Whitfield-GabrieliS., ReissA., EberhardtJ. L., GabrieliJ. D., & Grill-SpectorK. (2007). Differential development of high-level visual cortex correlates with category-specific recognition memory. Nature neuroscience, 10(4), 512–522.
45.
GolaraiG., LibermanA., YoonJ., & Grill-SpectorK. (2010). Differential development of the ventral visual cortex extends through adolescence. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 3, 1–19.
46.
HassonU., AvidanG., DeouellL. Y., BentinS., & MalachR. (2003). Face-selective activation in a congenital prosopagnosic subject. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 15(3), 419–431.
47.
HaxbyJ., & GobbiniM. (2011). Distributed neural systems for face perception. In CalderA., RhodesG., JohnsonM., & HaxbyJ. (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Face Perception (pp. 93–110). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
48.
HayD., & YoungA. (1982). The human face. In EllisA. W. (Ed.), Normality and pathology in cognitive functions (pp. 173–202). London: Academic Press.
49.
HenkeK., SchweinbergerS., GrigoA., KlosT., & SommerW. (1998). Specificity of face recognition: Recognition of exemplars of non-face objects in prosopagnosia. Cortex, 1998(34), 289–296.
50.
HumphreysK., AvidanG., & BehrmannM. (2007). A detailed investigation of facial expression processing in congenital prosopagnosia as compared to acquired prosopagnosia. Experimental Brain Research, 176(2), 356–373.
51.
HumphreysP., KaufmannW., & GalaburdaA. (1990). Developmental dyslexia in woman: Neuropathological findings in three patients. Annals of Neurology, 28(6), 727–738.
52.
JeffreysD. A. (1989). A face-responsive potential recorded from the human scalp. Experimental Brain Research, 78(1), 193–202.
53.
JonesR. D., & TranelD. (2001). Severe developmental prosopagnosia in a child with superior intellect. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 23(3), 265–273.
54.
JoyP., & BrunsdonR. (2002). Visual agnosia and prosopagnosia in childhood: A prospective case study. Child Neuropsychology, 8(1), 1–15.
55.
KanwisherN. (2000). Domain specificity in face perception. Nature Neuroscience, 3, 759–763.
56.
KanwisherN., McDermottJ., & ChunM. (1997). The Fusiform Face Area: A module in human extrastriate cortex specialized for face perception. Journal of Neuroscience, 17(11), 4302–4311.
57.
KayJ., ColtheartM., & LesserR. (1992). Psycholinguistic Assessments of Language Processing in Aphasia, (PALPA): Auditory Processing. Hove: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
58.
LawrenceK., BernsteinD., PearsonR., MandyW., CampbellR., & SkuseD. (2008). Changing abilities in recognition of unfamiliar face photographs through childhood and adolescence: Performance on a test of non-verbal immediate memory (Warrington RMF) from 6 to 16 years. Journal of Neuropsychology, 2(1), 27–45.
59.
LeeY., DuchaineB., NakayamaK., & WilsonH. (2010). Three cases of developmental prosopagnosia from one family: Detailed neuropsychological and psychophysical investigation of face processing. Cortex, 46, 949–964.
60.
McCarthyG., PuceA., & GoreJ. (1997). Face-specific processing in the human fusiform gyrus. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 9(5), 2188–2199.
61.
McConachieH. (1976). Develpmental prosopagnosia. A single case report. Cortex, 12, 76–82.
62.
McKoneE., CrookesK., JefferyL., & DilksD. D. (2012). A critical review of the development of face recognition: Experience is less important than previously believed. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 29(1–2), 174–212.
63.
McKoneE., HallA., PidcockM., PalermoR., WilkinsonR., RivoltaD., … O'ConnorK. (2011). Face ethnicity and measurement reliability affect face recognition performance in developmental prosopagnosia: Evidence from the Cambridge Face Memory Test-Australian. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 28(2), 109–146.
64.
McMullenP., FiskJ., PhillipsS., & MaloneyW. (2000). Apperceptive agnosia and face recognition. Neurocase, 6, 403–414.
65.
McNeilJ. E., & WarringtonE. (1993). Prosopagnosia: A face-specific disorder. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 46A(1), 1–10.
66.
MortonJ., & JohnsonM. (1991). CONSPEC and CONLERN: A two-process theory of infant face recognition. Psychological Review, 98, 164–181.
67.
MoscovitchM., WinocurG., & BehrmannM. (1997). What is special about face recognition? Nineteen experiments on a person with visual object agnosia and dyslexia but normal face recognition. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 9, 555–604.
68.
NakatoE., OtsukaY., KanazawaS., YamaguchiM. K., WatanabeS., & KakigiR. (2009). When do infants differentiate profile face from frontal face? A near-infrared spectroscopic study. Human Brain Mapping, 30, 462–472.
69.
OtsukaY., NakatoE., KanazawaS., YamaguchiM. K., WatanbeS., & KakigiR. (2007). Neural activation to upright and inverted faces in infants measured by near infrared spectroscopy. Neuroimage, 34, 399–406.
70.
PalermoR., WillisM., RivoltaD., McKoneE., WilsonC., & CalderA. (2011). Impaired holistic coding of facial expression and facial identity in congenital prosopagnosia. Neuropsychologia, 49, 1226–1235.
71.
PascalisO., ScottL., KellyD., ShannonR., NicholsonE., ColemanM., & NelsonC. (2005). Plasticity of face processing in infancy. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 102(14), 5297–5300.
72.
PitcherD., CharlesL., DevlinJ., WalshV., & DuchaineB. (2009). Triple dissociation of faces, bodies, and objects in extrastriate cortex. Current Biology, 19, 319–324.
73.
RamusF. (2004). Neurobiology of dyslexia: A reinterpretation of the data. Trends in Neuroscience, 27(12), 720–726.
74.
RezlescuC., BartonJ., PitcherD., & DuchaineB. (2014). Normal acquisition of expertise with greebles in two cases of acquired prosopagnosia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111, 5123–5128.
75.
RezlescuC., PitcherD., & DuchaineB. (2012). Acquired prosopagnosia with spared within-class object recognition but impaired recognition of degraded basic-level objects. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 29(4), 325–347.
RiddochJ., JohnstonR., BracewellR., BoutsenL., & HumphreysG. (2008). Are faces special? A case of pure prosopagnosia. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 25(1), 3–26.
78.
RumiatiR., HumphreysG., RiddochM., & BatemanA. (1994). Visual object agnosia without prosopagnosia or alexia: Evidence for hierarchical theories of visual recognition. Visual Cognition, 1, 181–226.
79.
SnodgrassJ. G., & VanderwartM. (1980). A standardized set of 260 pictures: norms for name agreement, image agreement, familiarity, and visual complexity. Journal of experimental psychology: Human learning and memory, 6(2), 174–215.
80.
SokalR., & RohlfJ. (1995). Biometry. San Francisco, CA: W.H. Freeman.
81.
SpreenO., & BentonA.L. (1969). Neurosensory Center comprehensive examination for aphasia. Victoria: Neuropsychology Laboratory, University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
82.
SugitaY. (2008). Face perception in monkeys reared with no exposure to faces. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(1), 394–398.
83.
SusiloT., GermineL., & DuchaineB. (2013). Face recognition ability matures late: Evidence from individual differences in young adults. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 39(5), 1212–1217.
84.
SusiloT., McKoneE., DennettH., DarkeH., PalermoR., HallA., et al. (2010). Face recognition impairments despite normal holistic processing and face space coding: Evidence from a case of developmental prosopagnosia. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 27(8), 636–664.
85.
SusiloT., YovelG., BartonJ., & DuchaineB. (2013). Face perception is category-specific: Evidence from normal body perception in acquired prosopagnosia. Cognition, 129, 88–94.
86.
TsaoD. Y., MoellerS., & FreiwaldW. A. (2008). Comparing face patch systems in macaques and humans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(49), 19514–19519.
87.
TodorovA., & DuchaineB. (2008). Reading trustworthiness in faces without recognizing faces. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 25(3), 395–410.
88.
WechslerD. (2011). Wechsler abbreviated scale of intelligence (WASI-II). San Antonio: Pearson.
89.
WeigeltS., KoldewynK., DilksD., BalasB., McKoneE., & KanwisherN. (2014). Domain-specific development of face memory but not face perception. Developmental Science, 17(1), 47–58.
90.
WilsonC. E., PalermoR., SchmalzlL., & BrockJ. (2010). Specificity of impaired facial identity recognition in children with syspected developmental prosopagnosia. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 27(1), 30–45.
