Prevalence and correlates of face recognition impairments after acquired brain injury

Abstract

Impairments of face recognition after acquired brain injury (ABI) are not restricted to prosopagnosia but commonly arise in association with other cognitive deficits and can be psychosocially debilitating. Despite this, the prevalence and cognitive concomitants of such impairments after ABI have not been systematically investigated. We tested 91 adults with ABI on a range of cognitive measures including several indices of face recognition and learning. The proportion of patients who show impaired performance varied across face learning/recognition tests between 21% and 80%. Principal components analyses indicated orthogonality between impairments of “directed facial processing”, associated with memory and visuoperceptual deficits and manifest in slow learning and matching of previously unfamiliar faces, and of “face identification”, associated with deficits on verbal tests and manifest in difficulty in naming famous faces. Theoretical and rehabilitative implications are considered.

This research was supported by a grant from the James S. McDonnell Foundation to whom we are most grateful.

Acknowledgments

We also thank the medical and nursing staff on the units from which patients were recruited.

Notes

This research was supported by a grant from the James S. McDonnell Foundation to whom we are most grateful.

¹ We thank Andrew Young for supplying this test.

² N.B. oblique rotations produced nearly identical factor structures.