Undergrad Rounds: Face Blindness

Apperceptive prosopagnosia

The form of prosopagnosia that comes from being able to integrate the visual component needed in order to recognize faces, and is linked to the posterior occipito-temporal region of the brain. Caused by fusiform face area lesions.

Associative prosopagnosia

The form of prosopagnosia that comes from the loss of info about whose face they are perceiving, and is linked to the anterior temporo-occipital region. Caused by anterior temporal lobe lesions.

Congenital/developmental prosopagnosia

The form of prosopagnosia that is present from birth and early childhood, and not from brain damage. Caused by reduced connections of facial recognition regions.

Acquired prosopagnosia

The form of prosopagnosia that comes from damage to the brain (i.e., stroke, traumatic brain injury)

Normative view

The belief that prosopagnosia exists on a continuum (varying levels of the condition). 

Pathologic view

The belief that prosopagnosia represents a discrete cluster (someone has it or they don’t). 

Treatment

There is no known cure, but interventions may improve symptoms. Perceptual learning strategy trains patients to recognize faces. Potential treatment is intranasal oxytocin, which has been found to show that oxytocin modulates activity in the fusiform facial area while participants recognize emotional expressions, improving facial recognition.