Modality-Specific and Multimodal 'Associative' Forms of Face and Voice Recognition Disorders in Patients with Right...

Introduction: 'Associative prosopagnosia' and 'associative phonagnosia' are high-level post-perceptual face and voice recognition defects due to right anterior temporal lesions, but the relations between these two disorders are uncertain. It is, indeed, not clear if face and voice recognition disorders observed in these patients must be considered as independent modality-specific recognition defects or as fragments of a more general semantic disorder concerning the multimodal representation of known persons. Aims of this study: In this review, the relations between associative forms of face and voice recognition disorders were investigated in all patients with right anterior temporal lesions reported in the literature. A prevalence of 'pure' (modality-specific) forms could indicate that these are independent, modality-specific recognition defects, whereas a high frequency of voice- and face-associated disorders could suggest that they are components of a multimodal semantic disruption. Results: Results show that 'associative prosopagnosia' and 'associative phonagnosia' are observed sometimes as 'pure' forms, other times as associations between verbal and non-verbal defects of person recognition, and still other times as associations restricted to the non-verbal (face and voice) modalities of person recognition. Furthermore, in a patient with a multimodal face and voice recognition disorder, the lesion involved the right temporal pole, considered as the locus of convergence of face and voice recognition modalities. Discussion: These data suggest that specific lesions of the right anterior temporal lobes can disrupt the highest modality-specific levels of face and voice representations, whereas other equally selective lesions can disrupt the locus of convergence of face and voice recognition modalities.