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.
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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
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 is the principle of the general object recognition problem explanation for prosopagnosia?
That there are not specific area of the brain because people with prosopagnosia also have problems recognising other objects
What evidence supports the explanation that prosopagnosia is a general object recognition problem?
Gauthier and Tarr
What were Gauthier and Tarr’s findings?
They found the FFA was activated in keen bird watchers when identifying birds, but not in cars. They also found this in car enthusiasts when identifying cars but not birds
What do Gauthier and Tarr’s findings suggest?
That perhaps the FFA is used for recognising things that are important to us, rather than just faces alone, but because humans are important to us if the FFA is damaged it can lead to problems recognising faces and objects.
Briefly, what are the evaluation points for prosopagnosia?
Compare
Case studies
Helpful
Explain the ‘compare’ evaluation point…
It’s not always useful to compare face recognition with object recognition, it could be that face recognition is just harder as it involves distinguishing between the same category (faces) which all have similar features
Explain the case studies evaluation point…
Data from one case study may not be generalisable to other people, they cannot be replicated so the results can’t be tested. Also prosopagnosics are often studies by one researcher or a small team so it’s difficult for other researchers to verify the findings
Explain the helpful evaluation point…
Research into prosopagnosia has helped therapists design new ways into helping sufferers. For example they’re encouraged to use non facial cues such as voice, clothes ect
Explain the debate for prosopagnosia…
Bruce and young suggest that humans have evolved to have special parts of the brain for recognising faces because we are social animals and it is very important for social organisation. Human infants are also immature and need to recognise in order to stay close and survive.
Developmental prosopagnosia may be caused by a mutation of a single gene
Acquired prosopagnosia is caused by brain damage to specific areas of the brain. People don’t recover from this suggesting face recognition can’t be learnt therefore it’s nature
