Structural differences in developmental prosopagnosia

Abstract

Developmental prosopagnosia (DP) is a condition in which individuals experience severe difficulties recognizing faces despite no history of neurological damage. We tested 17 DPs and 18 matched controls to investigate structural brain differences in DP. Voxel based morphometry showed that the DPs had smaller grey matter volume in bilateral regions of the superior temporal sulcus and in a region of the right anterior inferior temporal lobe. Differences in grey matter volume can be caused by a variety of factors, one of which is grey matter thickness. To examine this possibility, we compared cortical thickness between the two groups and found that DPs had decreased cortical thickness in the right anterior inferior temporal lobe. Finally, we tested all participants with a large battery of behavioural tests and will discuss the significant correlations of these results with grey matter volume and cortical thickness. Our results reinforce previous studies suggesting that all three of these areas are important for face processing.