Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Prosopagnosia

Prosopagnosia

Prosopagnosia, also known as face blindness, is the inability to recognize faces. In severe cases, individuals with prosopagnosia may not recognize close family members, including parents and spouses, by their faces. For instance, someone with prosopagnosia might walk past their child in a crowd, only realizing their mistake upon noticing their child's distinctive backpack or favorite jacket. Prosopagnosia specifically impairs facial recognition, while the recognition of other objects or...

Visual Agnosia

Visual Agnosia

Visual agnosia is a condition characterized by the inability to recognize visually presented objects despite having normal vision. For instance, a person with visual agnosia can describe the shape and color of an object but cannot identify or name it. This impairment does not affect their visual field, acuity, color vision, brightness discrimination, language, or memory. An example of this condition in a social setting is someone at a dinner party asking for "that silver thing with a round end"...

Association Areas of the Cortex

Association Areas of the Cortex

Association areas are regions of the cerebral cortex that do not have a specific sensory or motor function. Instead, they integrate and interpret information from various sources to enable higher cognitive processes such as memory, learning, and decision-making. Some key association areas include the following:
Prefrontal Association Area: This area is located in the frontal lobe and is involved in planning, decision-making, and moderating social behavior. It connects with primary motor areas,...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Deontological Guilt Differentially Affects Moral Behaviour in Participants With and Without Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

Clinical psychology & psychotherapy·2026

Same author

Multimodal Psychophysiological Assessment Reveals Gastric but Not Cardiac Interoception Deficits in Disorders of Gut-Brain Interaction.

Psychophysiology·2025

Same author

Taking an embodied avatar's perspective modulates the temporal dynamics of vicarious pain and pleasure: a virtual reality and EEG study.

Social cognitive and affective neuroscience·2025

Same author

Early categorization of social affordances during the visual encoding of bodily stimuli.

NeuroImage·2023

Same author

Combined EEG and immersive virtual reality unveil dopaminergic modulation of error monitoring in Parkinson's Disease.

NPJ Parkinson's disease·2023

Same author

What the study of spinal cord injured patients can tell us about the significance of the body in cognition.

Psychonomic bulletin & review·2022

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 27, 2026

Investigating Object Representations in the Macaque Dorsal Visual Stream Using Single-unit Recordings

Investigating Object Representations in the Macaque Dorsal Visual Stream Using Single-unit Recordings

Published on: August 1, 2018

Visual body recognition in a prosopagnosic patient.

V Moro¹, S Pernigo, R Avesani

¹Department of Philosophy, Pedagogy and Psychology, University of Verona, Lungadige Porta Vittoria 17, 37129 Verona, Italy. valentina.moro@univr.it

Neuropsychologia

|November 22, 2011

Summary

This study reveals that prosopagnosia, or face blindness, can co-occur with body agnosia, impacting the recognition of body forms and actions. Emotional cues aid in discriminating expressions but not identity, suggesting distinct brain networks for identity and emotion processing.

More Related Videos

A Human-machine-interface Integrating Low-cost Sensors with a Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation System for Post-stroke Balance Rehabilitation

A Human-machine-interface Integrating Low-cost Sensors with a Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation System for Post-stroke Balance Rehabilitation

Published on: April 12, 2016

Driving Simulation in the Clinic: Testing Visual Exploratory Behavior in Daily Life Activities in Patients with Visual Field Defects

Driving Simulation in the Clinic: Testing Visual Exploratory Behavior in Daily Life Activities in Patients with Visual Field Defects

Published on: September 18, 2012

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: May 27, 2026

Investigating Object Representations in the Macaque Dorsal Visual Stream Using Single-unit Recordings

Investigating Object Representations in the Macaque Dorsal Visual Stream Using Single-unit Recordings

Published on: August 1, 2018

A Human-machine-interface Integrating Low-cost Sensors with a Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation System for Post-stroke Balance Rehabilitation

A Human-machine-interface Integrating Low-cost Sensors with a Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation System for Post-stroke Balance Rehabilitation

Published on: April 12, 2016

Driving Simulation in the Clinic: Testing Visual Exploratory Behavior in Daily Life Activities in Patients with Visual Field Defects

Driving Simulation in the Clinic: Testing Visual Exploratory Behavior in Daily Life Activities in Patients with Visual Field Defects

Published on: September 18, 2012

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Cognitive Psychology
Neurology

Background:

Prosopagnosia is characterized by significant face recognition deficits.
Limited information exists on whether these agnosic deficits extend to non-facial body parts.
This study describes a patient with complete face recognition deficit and mild visual object agnosia.

Purpose of the Study:

Investigate the potential association between prosopagnosia and visual body perception disorders.
Examine the influence of emotional content on discriminating faces, bodies, and objects.
Determine if a dissociation exists between identity recognition and emotional discrimination of faces and bodies.

Main Methods:

Neuropsychological assessment of a patient (FM) with prosopagnosia.
Matching-to-sample tasks to evaluate visual discrimination of faces, bodies, and objects.
Analysis of the impact of emotional versus neutral stimuli on recognition tasks.

Main Results:

Documented the first instance of co-occurring body agnosia and prosopagnosia.
Demonstrated superior performance in discriminating emotional expressions (faces and bodies) compared to body identity or neutral actions.
Observed that emotional content did not enhance identity discrimination, despite bilateral fusiform gyrus lesions.

Conclusions:

The findings suggest two segregated, partially shared brain networks for identity and emotional discrimination in face and body processing.
Lesions in bilateral fusiform areas do not fully explain the sparing of emotion discrimination.
This research provides novel insights into the neural underpinnings of social perception deficits.