Visual Psychophysics of Human Face Processing

描述（由申请人提供）：根据美国国立卫生研究院面孔失认症信息页面，“面孔失认症是一种罕见的神经系统疾病，其特征是无法识别面孔. . . .在某些情况下，它是一种先天性疾病，出生时没有任何脑损伤。先天性面孔失认症似乎在家族中遗传，这使得它很可能是基因突变或缺失的结果。面孔失认症会对社会造成严重损害……患有先天性面孔失认症的儿童生来就有残疾…直到他们成年后，他们的缺陷可能对他们或其他人来说都不明显。”http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/prosopagnosia/Prosopagnosia.htm最近的研究表明，面孔失认症并不罕见。两项独立的估计表明，它可能影响2%的人口，其患病率与弱视和阅读障碍相当。然而，很少或没有系统的研究来理解这种常见的严重致残的视觉缺陷。我们将描述缺陷的范围，以帮助其诊断，并获得更充分的了解条件。我们有三个主要目标。首先，我们将系统地研究大量面孔失认症受试者，以便更好地了解其异质性，从一开始就认识到它的纯粹形式没有其他视觉缺陷，并且以伴随视觉记忆缺陷的标志性形式出现。（结果表明，这两种形式具有不同的遗传和生理基础。）为了做到这一点，我们将详尽地测试面孔失认症的许多视觉功能，评估对面孔、视觉物体和视觉场景的识别和记忆。其次，我们将更严格地评估几种新的培训制度，其中三名面孔失认症受试者的面部识别能力显著提高，我们将确定哪些人最有可能从特定的培训程序中受益。第三，我们认识到有很多患有面孔失认症的儿童没有得到帮助，也不了解这种情况，我们将启动一个项目来识别患有这种疾病的儿童和青少年，修改上述训练方法来提高这些儿童的面部识别能力。面孔失认症是一种非常常见的视觉缺陷，其特征是无法识别面孔。它可能会严重致残，导致失去友谊和工作机会，对一些人来说，还会导致抑郁和社会孤立。我们建议发展行为测试来诊断和描述成人和儿童的面孔失认症。此外，我们将确定一种新的训练方法的有效性，以改善这种严重状况的影响。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): According to the NIH prosopagnosia information page, " Prosopagnosia is a rare neurological disorder characterized by the inability to recognize faces . . . . In some cases it is a congenital disorder, 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 . . Prosopagnosia can be socially crippling . . . Children with congenital prosopagnosia are born with the disability . . . Their impairment may not be obvious to them or anyone else until they reach adulthood." http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/prosopagnosia/Prosopagnosia.htm Recent studies show that Prosopagnosia is not a rare condition. Two independent estimates indicate that it could affect 2% of the population, a prevalence comparable to amblyopia and dyslexia. Yet, there has been little or no systematic research to understand this common, seriously disabling visual deficit. We will characterize the range of deficits to aid in its diagnosis and to obtain fuller understanding of the condition. We have three main AIMS. First, we will systematically study a large population of prosopagnosic subjects so as to better appreciate its heterogeneity, recognizing at the outset that it comes in pure forms with no other visual deficiencies and in an iconic form where there is a concomitant deficit in visual memory. (Results suggest that these two forms have differing genetic and physiological substrates.) To accomplish this, we will exhaustively test prosopagnosics on many visual functions, assessing the recognition and memory of faces, visual objects and visual scenes. Second, we will more rigorously evaluate several new training regimes where three prosopagnosic subjects have significantly improved on their face recognition capabilities, and we will determine which persons are most likely to benefit from specific training procedures. Third, acknowledging that there are many children suffering from prosopagnosia with no help or understanding of the condition, we will initiate a project to identify children and adolescents with the condition, modifying the above training methods to improve face recognition in these children. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE Prosopagnosia is a surprisingly common visual deficit characterized by the inability to recognize faces. It can be severely disabling, leading to lost friendships and job opportunities and for some, depression and social isolation. We propose to develop behavioral tests to diagnose and characterize prosopagnosia in adults and in children. In addition, we will determine the efficacy of a new training method to ameliorate the effects of this serious condition.