Unilateral left prosopometamorphopsia: a neuropsychological case study.
We describe a patient who suddenly developed prosopometamorphopsia after a childbirth; she claimed that the left half of well-known and unfamiliar faces looked distorted. Brain MR was normal, whereas SPECT showed hypoperfusion of the left infero-lateral occipital cortex. No visual recognition defects for objects or faces were present. In three matching tasks with half-faces (Experiment 1), chimeric faces (Experiment 2), or chimeric objects (Experiment 3), the patient was impaired only when she matched pairs of chimeric faces differing in their left half; the same results were obtained after 1 year. This is the first behavioural demonstration of selective chronic metamorphopsia for the left side of faces, and provides new insights for models of face processing.
Trojano
Luigi
L
Neuropsychology Laboratory, Dept. of Psychology, Second University of Naples, Via Vivaldi 43, 81100 Caserta, Italy. luigi.trojano@unina2.it
Conson
Massimiliano
M
Salzano
Sara
S
Manzo
Valentino
V
Grossi
Dario
D
D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D009778:Occipital Lobe / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology; D036801:Parturition; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D020238:Prosopagnosia / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon; D014794:Visual Fields; D055815:Young Adult