Developmental prosopagnosia with concurrent topographical difficulties: A case report and virtual reality training...

Area of Science:

• Neuropsychology
• Cognitive Neuroscience

Background:

• Concurrent impairments in face recognition (prosopagnosia) and topographical orientation are documented in acquired brain injury.
• Developmental prosopagnosia and topographical disorientation have been described, with anecdotal links.
• The co-occurrence of these conditions can significantly worsen psychosocial outcomes.

Observation:

• This paper reports the first detailed case of an individual (FN) with developmental prosopagnosia and topographical disorientation.
• FN exhibited primary difficulties in forming and retrieving cognitive maps.
• FN underwent a short-term virtual reality (VR) training program.

Findings:

• Following intensive overlearning, FN successfully formed a cognitive map of a specific environment.
• Surprisingly, FN's face recognition performance also improved post-training.
• The improvement in face recognition was unexpected and warrants further investigation.

Implications:

• VR training may offer a viable intervention for individuals with developmental prosopagnosia and topographical disorientation.
• This approach could potentially mitigate the compounded psychosocial challenges faced by individuals with these dual difficulties.
• Further research is needed to understand the mechanisms behind the observed improvements in face recognition.