Prosopagnosia Flashcards
What are the two types of prosopagnosia?
Acquired prosopagnosia
Developmental prosopagnosia
What is acquired prosopagnosia?
A condition following acute damage to the part of the brain specialised for processing faces
What is developmental prosopagnosia?
This is a congenital form of the disorder which is inherited by 2.5% of the population
Briefly, what are the two explanations of prosopagnosia?
It’s a unique-face-specific problem
It’s a more general object recognition problem
What is the basic principle of the explanation that prosopagnosia is a ‘unique face-specific problem’?
It suggests that people with prosopagnosia only have problems recognising faces, suggesting there are specific face recognition centres in the brain as Bruce and Young’s Mindel suggests
What is the right fusiform gyrus linked to?
Evidence suggests that the right fusiform gyrus part of the brain deals with the face recognition units as pointed out by Bruce and Young
What is in charge of the face recognition unit?
The right fusiform gyrus
What happens after the right fusiform gyrus has dealt with the face recognition units?
The anterior temporal cortex brings up facts about the person to assist the identification process
What does the anterior temporal cortex do?
It brings up facts about the person such as name, age, where you know the from to assist the identification process
What equates to the anterior temporal cortex?
The personal identity nodes and name retrieval systems in Bruce and Young’s model
According to the unique face-specific explanation, why does prosopagnosia occur?
Because the third stage of face recognitions is not functioning properly and it is likely that is due to damage to the right fusiform gyrus.
Check this
What is prosopagnosia?
A disorder where the ability to recognise faces is impaired. Some people cannot even recognise their own face.
What did Grueter et al find?
That there was a significant genetic contribution to face recognition
How can Grueter et als findings be explained?
It is most probably the mutation of a single gene
What supports prosopagnosia being a face-specific problem?
Brain scans such as PET and fMRI scans
Case study of W.J
How do brain scans support prosopagnosia being a face-specific problem?
They show that the right fusiform gyrus is more active during face recognition than during object recognition
Why are brain scans good evidence?
Because they are reliable and valid because they are scientific and can be easily repeated to replicate the same results
Explain the case study of W.J…
He developed prosopagnosia following a series of strokes. He was unable to recognise the face of a famous person when shown it alongside do unfamiliar faces. He later became a sheep farmer and could identify all his sheep
What does the case study of W.J suggest?
This would suggest that we use a different system to recognise human faces
What did Grueter et al find?
That there was a significant genetic contribution to face recognition
How can Grueter et als findings be explained?
It is most probably the mutation of a single gene
What supports prosopagnosia being a face-specific problem?
Brain scans such as PET and fMRI scans
Case study of W.J
How do brain scans support prosopagnosia being a face-specific problem?
They show that the right fusiform gyrus is more active during face recognition than during object recognition
Why are brain scans good evidence?
Because they are reliable and valid because they are scientific and can be easily repeated to replicate the same results
