title: Word and text processing in acquired prosopagnosia.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  A novel hypothesis of object recognition asserts that multiple regions are engaged in processing an object type, and that cerebral regions participate in processing multiple types of objects. In particular, for high-level expert processing, it proposes shared rather than dedicated resources for word and face perception, and predicts that prosopagnosic subjects would have minor deficits in visual word processing, and alexic subjects would have subtle impairments in face perception. In this study, we evaluated whether prosopagnosic subjects had deficits in processing either the word content or the style of visual text.
  
  
  METHODS
  Eleven prosopagnosic subjects, 6 with unilateral right lesions and 5 with bilateral lesions, participated. In the first study, we evaluated their word length effect in reading single words. In the second study, we assessed their time and accuracy for sorting text by word content independent of style, and for sorting text by handwriting or font style independent of word content.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Only subjects with bilateral lesions showed mildly elevated word length effects. Subjects were not slowed in sorting text by word content, but were nearly uniformly impaired in accuracy for sorting text by style.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results show that prosopagnosic subjects are impaired not only in face recognition but also in perceiving stylistic aspects of text. This supports a modified version of the many-to-many hypothesis that incorporates hemispheric specialization for processing different aspects of visual text.
authors.affiliation: Human Vision and Eye Movement Laboratory, Departments of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, and of Medicine (Neurology), University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
authors.forename: Charlotte S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Hills
authors.affiliation: Human Vision and Eye Movement Laboratory, Departments of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, and of Medicine (Neurology), University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
authors.forename: Raika
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pancaroglu
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH.
authors.forename: Brad
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Duchaine
authors.affiliation: Human Vision and Eye Movement Laboratory, Departments of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, and of Medicine (Neurology), University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
authors.forename: Jason J S
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Barton
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D059907:Functional Neuroimaging; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D009778:Occipital Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology*; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D020238:Prosopagnosia / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology*