Face inversion superiority in a case of prosopagnosia following congenital brain abnormalities : what can it tell us about the specificity and origin of face-processing mechanisms? | Macquarie University ResearchOnline

Home

Face inversion superiority in a case of prosopagnosia following congenital brain abnormalities : what can it tell us about the specificity and origin of face-processing mechanisms?

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.14/129926

31 Visitors

32 Hits

0 Downloads

Title: Face inversion superiority in a case of prosopagnosia following congenital brain abnormalities : what can it tell us about the specificity and origin of face-processing mechanisms?
Related: Cognitive neuropsychology, Vol. 26, Issue 3, (2009), p.286-306
DOI: 10.1080/02643290903086904
Publisher: Psychology Press
Date: 2009
FoR/RFCD Code(s): 170100 Psychology 110900 Neurosciences 170200 Cognitive Sciences
Author/Creator: Schmalzl, Laura
Author/Creator: Palermo, Romina
Author/Creator: Harris, Irina M
Author/Creator: Coltheart, Max
Description: In the current study we describe J.M., a 15-year-old boy with a history of congenital brain abnormalities and concomitant visual-processing impairments. J.M.'s most prominent deficit is his impaired face recognition, but formal testing also revealed deficits in other domains of visual processing. One aspect that emerged from J.M.'s visual-processing assessment was a tendency to focus on local features and to rely on them for the encoding and identification of visual stimuli including geometric figures, objects, words, and inverted faces. In spite of this general tendency, he was impaired on tasks requiring the encoding of local features in upright faces. Moreover, his ability to distinguish between features in upright faces was significantly worse than that for inverted faces, the opposite pattern to that typically found in normal participants. What is it that keeps J.M. from applying his otherwise intact feature-based processing to upright faces? As proposed in previous reports of face inversion superiority in individuals with acquired face recognition impairments, we suggest that J.M.'s “inverted-face inversion effect” speaks for a specialized cognitive system that is mandatorily engaged by upright (but not inverted) faces, even when it is impaired and therefore maladaptive. In addition, since J.M. suffered from congenital brain abnormalities affecting the normal development of his face-processing skills, his performance suggests that specialized and mandatorily activated face-processing mechanisms are not entirely experience dependent, and that they can remain modular during development even if they don't function properly and are therefore maladaptive.
Description: 21 page(s)
Subject Keyword: 170100 Psychology
Subject Keyword: 110900 Neurosciences
Subject Keyword: 170200 Cognitive Sciences
Subject Keyword: prosopagnosia
Subject Keyword: face processing
Subject Keyword: innateness
Subject Keyword: domain specificity
Subject Keyword: modularity
Subject Keyword: face inversion effect
Resource Type: journal article
Organisation: Macquarie University. Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science

Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.14/129926
Identifier: ISSN:0264-3294
Identifier: mq-rm-2009004801
Language: eng
Reviewed

Macquarie University ResearchOnline

Search

Browse

Highlights

Resources