A modulatory role for facial expressions in prosopagnosia.
Brain-damaged patients experience difficulties in recognizing a face (prosopagnosics), but they can still recognize its expression. The dissociation between these two face-related skills has served as a keystone of models of face processing. We now report that the presence of a facial expression can influence face identification. For normal viewers, the presence of a facial expression influences performance negatively, whereas for prosopagnosic patients, it improves performance dramatically. Accordingly, although prosopagnosic patients show a failure to process the facial configuration in the interest of face identification, that ability returns when the face shows an emotional expression. Accompanying brain-imaging results indicate activation in brain areas (amygdala, superior temporal sulcus, parietal cortex) outside the occipitotemporal areas normally activated for face identification and lesioned in these patients. This finding suggests a modulatory role of these areas in face identification that is independent of occipitotemporal face areas.
de Gelder
Beatrice
B
Cognitive and Affective Neurosciences Laboratory, Tilburg University, 5000 LA Tilburg, The Netherlands. degelder@nmr.mgh.harvard.edu
Frissen
Ilja
I
Barton
Jason
J
Hadjikhani
Nouchine
N
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005149:Facial Expression; D006798:Housing; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020238:Prosopagnosia / Q000523:psychology*; D012016:Reference Values