Does acquisition of Greeble expertise in prosopagnosia rule out a domain-general deficit?

► We tested the specificity of impairment in a prosopagnosic individual (LR) who uses only a single feature to identify faces. ► LR was able to reach expertise criterion for Greebles, though he took many more training sessions than controls. ► Post-tests revealed that LR used only a single feature t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Neuropsychologia 2012-01, Vol.50 (2), p.289-304
Main Authors: Bukach, Cindy M., Gauthier, Isabel, Tarr, Michael J., Kadlec, Helena, Barth, Sara, Ryan, Emily, Turpin, Justin, Bub, Daniel N.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult and adolescent clinical studies
Biological and medical sciences
Discrimination (Psychology)
Disorders of higher nervous function. Focal brain diseases. Central vestibular syndrome and deafness. Brain stem syndromes
Domain specificity
Face recognition
Female
Form Perception - physiology
Humans
Learning - physiology
Male
Medical sciences
Middle Aged
Nervous system (semeiology, syndromes)
Neurology
Neuropsychological Tests
Object recognition
Organic mental disorders. Neuropsychology
Perceptual expertise
Prosopagnosia
Prosopagnosia - physiopathology
Prosopagnosia - psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Recognition (Psychology) - physiology
Time Factors
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Summary:► We tested the specificity of impairment in a prosopagnosic individual (LR) who uses only a single feature to identify faces. ► LR was able to reach expertise criterion for Greebles, though he took many more training sessions than controls. ► Post-tests revealed that LR used only a single feature to identify Greebles, whereas controls used multiple features. ► LR's face recognition deficit is the most apparent symptom of a more general impairment in expertise-related visual processing. ► Even when performance for object recognition is high, a range of paradigms is helpful to assess how recognition is accomplished. According to the expertise account of face specialization, a deficit that affects general expertise mechanisms should similarly impair the expert individuation of both faces and other visually homogeneous object classes. To test this possibility, we attempted to train a prosopagnosic patient, LR, to become a Greeble expert using the standard Greeble expertise-training paradigm (Gauthier & Tarr, 2002). Previous research demonstrated that LR's prosopagnosia was related to an inability to simultaneously use multiple features in a speeded face recognition task (Bukach, Bub, Gauthier, & Tarr, 2006). We hypothesized that LR's inability to use multiple face features would manifest in his acquisition of Greeble expertise, even though his basic object recognition is unimpaired according to standard neuropsychological testing. Although LR was eventually able to reach expertise criterion, he took many more training sessions than controls, suggesting use of an abnormal strategy. To further explore LR's Greeble processing strategies, we assessed his ability to use multiple Greeble features both before and after Greeble training. LR's performance in two versions of this task demonstrates that, even after training, he relies heavily on a single feature to identify Greebles. This correspondence between LR's face recognition and post-training Greeble recognition supports the idea that impaired face recognition is simply the most visible symptom of a more general object recognition impairment in acquired prosopagnosia.
ISSN:0028-3932
1873-3514
DOI:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2011.11.023