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Abstract
People with developmental prosopagnosia (DP) show severe face-recognition deficits that typically emerge during childhood without history of neurological damage. We review findings from recent event-related brain potential (ERP) studies of face perception and face recognition in DP. The generic face-sensitivity of the N170 component is present in most DPs, suggesting rapid category-selective streaming of facial information. In contrast, DPs show atypical N170 face inversion effects, indicative of impaired structural encoding, specifically for upright faces. In line with neurodevelopmental accounts of DP, these effects are similar to those observed for other developmental disorders, as well as for younger children and older adults. Identity-sensitive ERP components (N250, P600f) triggered during successful face recognition are similar for DPs and control participants, indicating that the same mechanisms are active in both groups. The presence of covert face-recognition effects for the N250 component suggests that visual face memory and semantic memory can become disconnected in some individuals with DP. The implications of these results for neuropsychological and neurodevelopmental perspectives on DP are discussed.
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by a grant from the Economic and Social Sciences Research Council (ESRC), UK. Our thanks to Angela Gosling, Joanna Parketny, Friederike Zimmermann, and Brad Duchaine for their contributions to the work reviewed in this paper, to Margot Taylor for providing us with the data for , and to Annette Karmiloff-Smith for comments on an earlier version of the manuscript.