A Familial Factor in the Development of Face Recognition Deficits

Abstract

The face is probably the single most important visual object. It is the main cue for identifying familiar people and crucial in nonverbal communication. Face recognition can be demonstrated in newborn babies, suggesting that face recognition is to some degree ‘hard-wired’ in the brain. Also, neurological disease can selectively disrupt the ability to recognize faces. Apart from acquired face recognition deficits, developmental cases have been reported. This study presents a family in which the father and two of his daughters are very poor at recognizing faces, demonstrating for the first time a familial factor in developmental face recognition deficit.