A family at risk: congenital prosopagnosia, poor face recognition and visuoperceptual deficits within one family.
Neuropsychologia
; 58: 52-63, 2014 May.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-24704175
ABSTRACT
Congenital prosopagnosia (CP) describes a severe face processing impairment despite intact early vision and in the absence of overt brain damage. CP is assumed to be present from birth and often transmitted within families. Previous studies reported conflicting findings regarding associated deficits in nonface visuoperceptual tasks. However, diagnostic criteria for CP significantly differed between studies, impeding conclusions on the heterogeneity of the impairment. Following current suggestions for clinical diagnoses of CP, we administered standardized tests for face processing, a self-report questionnaire and general visual processing tests to an extended family (N=28), in which many members reported difficulties with face recognition. This allowed us to assess the degree of heterogeneity of the deficit within a large sample of suspected CPs of similar genetic and environmental background. (a) We found evidence for a severe face processing deficit but intact nonface visuoperceptual skills in three family members - a father and his two sons - who fulfilled conservative criteria for a CP diagnosis on standardized tests and a self-report questionnaire, thus corroborating findings of familial transmissions of CP. (b) Face processing performance of the remaining family members was also significantly below the mean of the general population, suggesting that face processing impairments are transmitted as a continuous trait rather than in a dichotomous all-or-nothing fashion. (c) Self-rating scores of face recognition showed acceptable correlations with standardized tests, suggesting this method as a viable screening procedure for CP diagnoses. (d) Finally, some family members revealed severe impairments in general visual processing and nonface visual memory tasks either in conjunction with face perception deficits or as an isolated impairment. This finding may indicate an elevated risk for more general visuoperceptual deficits in families with prosopagnosic members.
Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Colección:
01-internacional
Base de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Trastornos de la Percepción
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Prosopagnosia
Tipo de estudio:
Diagnostic_studies
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Etiology_studies
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Risk_factors_studies
Límite:
Adolescent
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Adult
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Humans
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Male
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Middle aged
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Neuropsychologia
Año:
2014
Tipo del documento:
Article