Differences in face recognition predict the understanding of events during natural viewing

Understanding everyday events is essential for navigating and facilitating successful social interactions. Face recognition is thought to play a critical role in how we associate and interpret events in the real world. In this study, we explored this issue using a natural viewing paradigm in which participants watched a movie containing a rich and detailed narrative. To determine the importance of face recognition in event comprehension, we compared age-matched, neurotypical control participants and individuals with developmental prosopagnosia (DP) – a lifelong deficit in the ability to recognize faces. After watching the movie, participants were assessed on their comprehension of the events from the movie. We found that DPs showed a significant reduction in their understanding of the events from the movie compared to neurotypical controls. We also found that individual differences in face recognition predicted event comprehension. Together, these results demonstrate the importance of face recognition for understanding naturally unfolding events in everyday life.