Prosopagnosia

Prosopagnosia is a disorder of visual perception defined by the inability to recognize faces in the absence of impairments to lower-level vision or intellect. It can result from damage to ventral occipital regions of the brain, or can be present from birth with no known brain anomalies. Prosopagnosia is particularly striking because of the importance of face recognition to everyday social interactions. Indeed, faces appear to be a special class of stimuli for which the brain has developed a highly complex and integrated processing system. This system appears to be compromised to varying degrees in patients with prosopagnosia.