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PSY 440: Physiological Psychology

This is a course guide for the course PSY 440: Physiological Psychology

Prosopagnosia

Prosopagosia is a neurological disorder characterized by the inability to recognize faces. Depending on the degree of severity, some people with prospagnosia may only have difficulty recognizing a familiar face; others will be unable to discriminate between  unknown faces, while still others may not even be able to distinguish a face as being different from an object. Some people with the disorder are unable to recognize their own face. Prosopagnosia is not related to memory dysfunction, memory loss, impaired vision, or learning disabilities. Prosopagnosia is thought to be the result of abnormalities, damage, or impairment in the right fusiform gyrus, a fold in the brain that appears to coordinate the neural system that control facial perception and memory. Prosopagosia can result from a stroke, traumatic brain injury, or certain neurodegenative diseases. In some cases, it is a congenital disorders, present at birth in the absence of any brain damage. Congenital prosopagnosia appears to run in families, which makes it likely to be the result of a genetic mutation or deletion. Some degree of prosopagnosia is often present in children with autism and Asperger's  syndrome, and may be the cause of their impaired social development. Summary is from https://www.ninds.nih.gov/Disorders/All-Disorders/Prosopagnosia-Information-Page

Prosopagnosia Resources

For more resources on Prosopagnosia, search the databases listed in Database tab