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Updated: Jul 6, 2026

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Published on: July 31, 2016
Are faces special? A case of pure prosopagnosia
M Jane Riddoch1, Robert A Johnston, R Martyn Bracewell
1Behavioural Brain Sciences, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK. m.j.riddoch@bham.ac.uk
Abstract:
The ability to recognize individual faces is of crucial social importance for humans and evolutionarily necessary for survival. Consequently, faces may be "special" stimuli, for which we have developed unique modular perceptual and recognition processes. Some of the strongest evidence for face processing being modular comes from cases of prosopagnosia, where patients are unable to recognize faces whilst retaining the ability to recognize other objects. Here we present the case of an acquired prosopagnosic whose poor recognition was linked to a perceptual impairment in face processing. Despite this, she had intact object recognition, even at a subordinate level. She also showed a normal ability to learn and to generalize learning of nonfacial exemplars differing in the nature and arrangement of their parts, along with impaired learning and generalization of facial exemplars. The case provides evidence for modular perceptual processes for faces.
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