Evidence for individual face discrimination in non-face selective areas of the visual cortex in acquired prosopagnosia.

Publisher: Hindawi Country of Publication: Netherlands NLM ID: 8914585 Publication Model: Print Cited Medium: Print ISSN: 0953-4180 (Print) Linking ISSN: 09534180 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Behav Neurol Subsets: MEDLINE

Publication: 2014- : New York : Hindawi
Original Publication: London : Clinical Neuroscience Publishers, c1988-

Discrimination, Psychological* ; Face*; Prosopagnosia/*physiopathology ; Visual Cortex/*physiopathology ; Visual Perception/*physiology; Adaptation, Physiological ; Adult ; Female ; Functional Laterality/physiology ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Male ; Occipital Lobe/physiopathology ; Prosopagnosia/diagnosis ; Severity of Illness Index ; Temporal Lobe/physiopathology

Two areas in the human occipito-temporal cortex respond preferentially to faces: 'the fusiform face area' ('FFA') and the 'occipital face area' ('OFA'). However, it is unclear whether these areas have an exclusive role in processing faces, or if sub-maximal responses in other visual areas such as the lateral occipital complex (LOC) are also involved. To clarify this issue, we tested a brain-damaged patient (PS) presenting a face-selective impairment with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The right hemisphere lesion of the prosopagnosic patient encompasses the 'OFA' but preserves the 'FFA' and LOC. Using fMRI-adaptation, we found a larger response to different faces than repeated faces in the ventral part of the LOC both for normals and the patient, next to her right hemisphere lesion. This observation indicates that following prosopagnosia, areas that do not respond preferentially to faces such as the ventral part of the LOC (vLOC) may still be recruited to subtend residual perception of individual faces.

Date Created: 20080417 Date Completed: 20080729 Latest Revision: 20211020

20231215

PMC5452458

10.1155/2008/561476

18413922