Journal article
Severe developmental prosopagnosia in a child with superior intellect
Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology, Vol.23(3), pp.265-273
06/2001
DOI: 10.1076/jcen.23.3.265.1183
PMID: 11404805
Abstract
Developmental prosopagnosia, a lifelong inability to learn and recognize familiar faces, has rarely been reported, and there are even fewer cases that have been studied during childhood. Of the cases studied during childhood, significant "apperceptive" features to the face recognition defect have been noted. We had an opportunity to conduct extensive standard and experimental neuropsychological, psychophysiological, and neuroanatomical studies in a five-year-old child with severe developmental prosopagnosia. The subject was intellectually gifted (FSIQ = 130), but had a marked discrepancy between verbal and nonverbal abilities (VIQ = 140, PIQ = 110). Although some visual perceptual weaknesses were apparent, the subject's face recognition defect was found to cnform most closely to the "associative" type, and he did not have visual recognition deficits for any categories of nonunique entities. A novel finding was that the child's covert recognition of familiar faces based on an autonomic index was normal, suggesting that as in some adult-onset cases, the brain is capable of acquiring some information about familiar faces, even without conscious recognition. The child also had normal judgments of facial emotional expressions. Our report extends the understanding of the neuropsychological features of developmental prosopagnosia, and may help narrow the search for neuroanatomical correlates of this condition, which have yet to be identified.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Severe developmental prosopagnosia in a child with superior intellect
- Creators
- R D Jones - Department of Neurology, University of Iowa, College of Medicine, Iowa City 52242, USAD Tranel
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology, Vol.23(3), pp.265-273
- DOI
- 10.1076/jcen.23.3.265.1183
- PMID
- 11404805
- NLM abbreviation
- J Clin Exp Neuropsychol
- ISSN
- 1380-3395
- eISSN
- 1744-411X
- Publisher
- Taylor & Francis Group; England
- Grant note
- NS 19632 / NINDS NIH HHS
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 06/2001
- Academic Unit
- Neurology; Psychological and Brain Sciences; Iowa Neuroscience Institute
- Record Identifier
- 9984002577602771
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