The Problem of Prosopagnosia

Amongthegreat diversity ofvisual gnostic disorders there isonevariety ofparticular interest: itsbasic symptomisthelossofthefaculty torecognize humanfaces (prosopagnosia). Although theexistence ofsuch adisorder hadbeensurmised byearlier authors (Charcot, 1887;Wilbrand, 1892;Darkshevich, 1909;Poppelreuter, 1917), ithasonly recently beenaccepted asarelatively specific form ofvisual agnosia (Bodamer, 1947). According to Hecaenand Ajuriaguerra (1956)and Hecaen, Angelergues, Bernhardt, andChiarelli(1957), 25cases wererecorded between 1932and1950andsome15 moredescriptions ofthesyndrome havesince appeared intheliterature (cf. Davidenkov, 1956; Bornstein andKidron, 1959). Ina recent paper, ChlenovandBeyn(1958) haveattempted toanalyse thedisorder inthree cases ofvarying degree ofseverity fromthepoint ofviewofpathogenesis, symptoms, andlocalization. Although its complex nature wasstressed, theauthors argued that prosopagnosia differs bothquantitatively andqualitatively fromother formsofvisual agnosia andmayberegarded asa specific failure ofthe complex function uponwhichspecific recognition ofagiven individual depends. Itistoberegarded asadisorder ofperception, except perhaps inthe mostsevere cases inwhichvisual memoryisalso affected. Inthepresent paper, a caseofpronounced prosopagnosia withsomeinvolvement ofvisual memoryiscommunicated.