Bobak Anna K, Parris Benjamin A, Gregory Nicola J, Bennetts Rachel J, Bate Sarah
a Department of Psychology, Faculty of Science and Technology , Bournemouth University , Poole , UK.
Q J Exp Psychol (Hove). 2017 Feb;70(2):201-217. doi: 10.1080/17470218.2016.1161059. Epub 2016 Mar 31.
Developmental prosopagnosia (DP) is a cognitive condition characterized by a severe deficit in face recognition. Few investigations have examined whether impairments at the early stages of processing may underpin the condition, and it is also unknown whether DP is simply the "bottom end" of the typical face-processing spectrum. To address these issues, we monitored the eye-movements of DPs, typical perceivers, and "super recognizers" (SRs) while they viewed a set of static images displaying people engaged in naturalistic social scenarios. Three key findings emerged: (a) Individuals with more severe prosopagnosia spent less time examining the internal facial region, (b) as observed in acquired prosopagnosia, some DPs spent less time examining the eyes and more time examining the mouth than controls, and (c) SRs spent more time examining the nose-a measure that also correlated with face recognition ability in controls. These findings support previous suggestions that DP is a heterogeneous condition, but suggest that at least the most severe cases represent a group of individuals that qualitatively differ from the typical population. While SRs seem to merely be those at the "top end" of normal, this work identifies the nose as a critical region for successful face recognition.
发育性面孔失认症（DP）是一种认知状况，其特征是面部识别存在严重缺陷。很少有研究探讨加工早期阶段的损伤是否可能是该病症的基础，而且DP是否仅仅是典型面部加工范围的“低端”情况也尚不清楚。为了解决这些问题，我们监测了发育性面孔失认症患者、典型感知者和“超级识别者”（SRs）在观看一组展示人们处于自然社会场景的静态图像时的眼动情况。出现了三个关键发现：（a）面孔失认症更严重的个体花在检查面部内部区域的时间更少，（b）正如在后天性面孔失认症中所观察到的，一些发育性面孔失认症患者比对照组花在检查眼睛上的时间更少，而花在检查嘴巴上的时间更多，以及（c）超级识别者花在检查鼻子上的时间更多——这一指标在对照组中也与面部识别能力相关。这些发现支持了之前关于DP是一种异质性病症的观点，但表明至少最严重的病例代表了一组在质上与典型人群不同的个体。虽然超级识别者似乎仅仅是处于正常“高端”的那些人，但这项研究确定鼻子是成功进行面部识别的关键区域。
