Covert face priming reveals a ‘true face effect’ in a case of congenital prosopagnosia

Striemer, Christopher; Gingerich, Trevor; Striemer, Danielle; Dixon, Mike

Covert face priming reveals a ‘true face effect’ in a case of congenital prosopagnosia

Author

Striemer, Christopher

Gingerich, Trevor

Striemer, Danielle

Dixon, Mike

Date

2009

Keywords

congenital prosopagnosia, face recognition, face priming, covert recognition, face representations

Abstract (summary)

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, but also show a 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.

Publication Information

Striemer C., Gingerich T., Striemer D. & Dixon M. (2009). Covert face priming reveals a ‘true face effect’ in a case of congenital prosopagnosia. Neurocase, 15(6), 509-514. doi: 10.1080/13554790902971166