Grüter Thomas, Grüter Martina, Carbon Claus-Christian
University of Vienna, Faculty of Psychology, Vienna, Austria
J Neuropsychol. 2008 Mar;2(1):79-97. doi: 10.1348/174866407x231001.
Faces are of essential importance for human social life. They provide valuable information about the identity, expression, gaze, health, and age of a person. Recent face-processing models assume highly interconnected neural structures between different temporal, occipital, and frontal brain areas with several feedback loops. A selective deficit in the visual learning and recognition of faces is known as prosopagnosia, which can be found both in acquired and congenital form. Recently, a hereditary sub-type of congenital prosopagnosia with a very high prevalence rate of 2.5% has been identified. Recent research results show that hereditary prosopagnosia is a clearly circumscribed face-processing deficit with a characteristic set of clinical symptoms. Comparing face processing of people of prosopagnosia with that of controls can help to develop a more conclusive and integrated model of face processing. Here, we provide a summary of the current state of face processing research. We also describe the different types of prosopagnosia and present the set of typical symptoms found in the hereditary type. Finally, we will discuss the implications for future face recognition research.
面孔对于人类社会生活至关重要。它们提供有关一个人的身份、表情、目光、健康和年龄的宝贵信息。最近的面孔处理模型假定不同颞叶、枕叶和额叶脑区之间存在高度互联的神经结构以及多个反馈回路。对面孔的视觉学习和识别存在选择性缺陷被称为面孔失认症，其既有后天性的也有先天性的。最近，已鉴定出一种先天性面孔失认症的遗传性亚型，其患病率高达2.5%。最近的研究结果表明，遗传性面孔失认症是一种具有一组特征性临床症状的明确界定的面孔处理缺陷。将面孔失认症患者与对照组的面孔处理进行比较有助于建立一个更具结论性和综合性的面孔处理模型。在此，我们总结面孔处理研究的当前状况。我们还描述了面孔失认症的不同类型，并呈现遗传性类型中发现的一组典型症状。最后，我们将讨论对未来人脸识别研究的影响。
