Covert face priming reveals a 'true face effect' in a case of congenital prosopagnosia.
Previous research indicates that individuals with congenital prosopagnosia (CP) fail to demonstrate significant priming from faces to related names in covert recognition tasks. The interpretation has been that CP precludes the ability to acquire face representations. In the current study we replicated this important finding. In addition, we also demonstrated significant 'true face effect' in a CP patient, where face primes that matched the probe names facilitated reaction times compared to unrelated face primes. These data suggest that some individuals with CP may possess degraded face representations that facilitate the priming of a person's identity, but not semantic associates.
Striemer
Christopher
C
CIHR Group on Action and Perception, Department of Psychology, Social Sciences Centre, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.
Gingerich
Trevor
T
Striemer
Danielle
D
Dixon
Mike
M
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008606:Mental Processes; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009275:Names; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D020238:Prosopagnosia; D011930:Reaction Time; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D012660:Semantics; D055815:Young Adult