Face identity recognition; Natural images; PS; Prosopagnosia; Single case
Abstract :
[en] Behavioral evaluation of face identity recognition (FIR) ability has been performed with images for decades but remains subject to challenges regarding the stimuli and tasks used as well as the measured variables. Here we validate two simple nonverbal tests of FIR with ambient natural face images in neurotypical individuals and the well-documented brain-damaged case of prosopagnosia PS. In the first task, participants must select a famous identity among 3 simultaneously presented pictures. While neurotypical individuals scored almost at ceiling, PS was at chance level. In contrast, she was flawless at the same task with written names. The second task requires matching different views of familiar or unfamiliar faces for their identity against one distractor face, at upright or inverted orientation. While performing well above chance level, PS was significantly impaired and slowed down compared to neurotypical controls. Moreover, unlike controls, she showed no advantage for familiar or upright faces. Altogether, these simple behavioral FIR tests present with numerous advantages in terms of validity (i.e., natural images, lack of response biases, familiarity and inversion effects) and sensitivity (i.e., high contrast between patients and controls), making them particularly advantageous to rapidly evaluate the integrity of this function in normal and pathological populations.
Disciplines :
Neurosciences & behavior
Author, co-author :
VOLFART, Angélique ; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences (FHSE) > Department of Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences (DBCS) > Cognitive Science and Assessment
Michel, Caroline; Psychological Sciences Research Institute (IPSY), Université de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
Rossion, Bruno; Psychological Sciences Research Institute (IPSY), Université de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. bruno.rossion@univ-lorraine.fr ; Université de Lorraine, CNRS, IMoPA UMR 7365, Pavillon Krug (1er étage-entrée CC-1), Hopital Central, Nancy, 54000, France. bruno.rossion@univ-lorraine.fr ; Service de Neurologie, CHRU Nancy-University Hospital of Nancy, 29 Av. du maréchal de Lattres de Tassigny, Nancy Cedex, 54035, France. bruno.rossion@univ-lorraine.fr
External co-authors :
yes
Language :
English
Title :
A simple behavioral evaluation test of human face identity recognition with natural images validated with the case of prosopagnosia PS.
Rossion, B. What makes Us human? Face identity recognition. in The Routledge Handbook of Semiosis and the Brain (Routledge, (2022).
De Renzi E Spinnler H Visual recognition in patients with unilateral cerebral disease J. Nerv. Ment Dis. 1966 142 515 525 5920204 10.1097/00005053-196606000-00002
Warrington EK James M An experimental investigation of facial recognition in patients with unilateral cerebral lesions Cortex 1967 3 317 326 10.1016/S0010-9452(67)80020-0
Benton AL Van Allen MW Impairment in facial recognition in patients with cerebral disease Cortex 1968 4 344 358 10.1016/S0010-9452(68)80018-8
De Renzi E Faglioni P Spinnler H The performance of patients with unilateral brain damage on face recognition tasks Cortex 1968 4 17 34 10.1016/S0010-9452(68)80010-3
Milner B Visual recognition and recall after right temporal-lobe excision in man Neuropsychologia 1968 6 191 209 10.1016/0028-3932(68)90019-5
Volfart A Rossion B The neuropsychological evaluation of face identity recognition Neuropsychologia 2024 198 108865 38522782 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2024.108865
Duchaine B Nakayama K The Cambridge face memory test: results for neurologically intact individuals and an investigation of its validity using inverted face stimuli and prosopagnosic participants Neuropsychologia 2006 44 576 585 16169565 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2005.07.001
Duchaine B Germine L Nakayama K Family resemblance: ten family members with prosopagnosia and within-class object agnosia Cogn. Neuropsychol. 2007 24 419 430 18416499 10.1080/02643290701380491
Burton AM White D McNeill A The Glasgow face matching test Behav. Res. Methods 2010 42 286 291 20160307 10.3758/BRM.42.1.286
Yue X Biederman I Mangini MC Malsburg C Amir O Predicting the psychophysical similarity of faces and non-face complex shapes by image-based measures Vis. Res. 2012 55 41 46 22248730 10.1016/j.visres.2011.12.012
Logan AJ Wilkinson F Wilson HR Gordon GE Loffler G The Caledonian face test: A new test of face discrimination Vis. Res. 2016 119 29 41 26607479 10.1016/j.visres.2015.11.003
White D Phillips PJ Hahn CA Hill M O’Toole AJ Perceptual expertise in forensic facial image comparison Proc. R Soc. B Biol. Sci. 2015 282 20151292 10.1098/rspb.2015.1292
Fysh MC Bindemann M The Kent face matching test Br. J. Psychol. 2018 109 219 231 28872661 10.1111/bjop.12260
Wilmer JB et al. Capturing specific abilities as a window into human individuality: the example of face recognition Cogn. Neuropsychol. 2012 29 360 392 23428079 10.1080/02643294.2012.753433
Busigny T et al. CELEB: Une batterie d’évaluation de La reconnaissance des visages célèbres et de l’accès aux noms propres Rev. Neuropsychol. 2014 6 69 81
Mishra MV et al. Gender differences in familiar face recognition and the influence of Sociocultural gender inequality Sci. Rep. 2019 9 1 12 10.1038/s41598-019-54074-5
DeGutis J et al. What is the prevalence of developmental prosopagnosia? An empirical assessment of different diagnostic cutoffs Cortex 2023 161 51 64 36905701 10065901 10.1016/j.cortex.2022.12.014
Bennetts RJ Butcher N Lander K Udale R Bate S Movement cues aid face recognition in developmental prosopagnosia Neuropsychology 2015 29 855 860 25822463 10.1037/neu0000187
Quaranta D et al. Recognition disorders for famous faces and voices: a review of the literature and normative data of a new test battery Neurol. Sci. 2016 37 345 352 26700802 10.1007/s10072-015-2437-1
Bate S et al. Objective patterns of face recognition deficits in 165 adults with self-reported developmental prosopagnosia Brain Sci. 2019 9 133 31174381 6627939 10.3390/brainsci9060133
van den Elzen, E. H. T., Brehmer, Y., Van Deun, K. & Mark, R. E. Stimulus material selection for the Dutch famous faces test for older adults. Front. Med.10, (2023).
Ventura M Caffò AO Manippa V Rivolta D Normative data of the Italian famous face test Sci. Rep. 2024 14 15276 2024NatSR.1415276V 1:CAS:528:DC%2BB2cXhsFSmurfE 38961204 11222389 10.1038/s41598-024-66252-1
Volfart A et al. Intracerebral electrical stimulation of the right anterior fusiform gyrus impairs human face identity recognition NeuroImage 2022 250 118932 35085763 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.118932
Volfart A et al. Intracerebral electrical stimulation of the face-selective right lateral fusiform gyrus transiently impairs face identity recognition Neuropsychologia 2023 190 108705 37839512 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2023.108705
Rossion B et al. A network of occipito-temporal face-sensitive areas besides the right middle fusiform gyrus is necessary for normal face processing Brain 2003 126 2381 2395 12876150 10.1093/brain/awg241
Rossion B Twenty years of investigation with the case of prosopagnosia PS to understand human face identity recognition. Part I function Neuropsychologia 2022 173 108278 35690112 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2022.108278
Rossion, B. Twenty years of investigation with the case of prosopagnosia PS to understand human face identity recognition. Part II neural basis. Neuropsychologia108279https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2022.108279 (2022).
Jenkins R White D Van Montfort X Burton AM Variability in photos of the same face Cognition 2011 121 313 323 21890124 10.1016/j.cognition.2011.08.001
Sutherland CAM et al. Social inferences from faces: ambient images generate a three-dimensional model Cognition 2013 127 105 118 23376296 10.1016/j.cognition.2012.12.001
Murphy J Ipser A Gaigg SB Cook R Exemplar variance supports robust learning of facial identity J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform. 2015 41 577 581 25867504 4445380 10.1037/xhp0000049
Yin RK Looking at upside-down faces J. Exp. Psychol. 1969 81 141 145 10.1037/h0027474
Freire A Lee K Symons LA The face-inversion effect as a deficit in the encoding of configural information: direct evidence Perception 2000 29 159 170 1:STN:280:DC%2BD3c3otVagtg%3D%3D 10820599 10.1068/p3012
Rossion B Picture-plane inversion leads to qualitative changes of face perception Acta Psychol. (Amst) 2008 128 274 289 18396260 10.1016/j.actpsy.2008.02.003
Yin RK Face recognition by brain-injured patients: A dissociable ability? Neuropsychologia 1970 8 395 402 1:STN:280:DyaE38%2FltlKgtg%3D%3D 5522569 10.1016/0028-3932(70)90036-9
Busigny T Rossion B Acquired prosopagnosia abolishes the face inversion effect Cortex 2010 46 965 981 19683710 10.1016/j.cortex.2009.07.004
Sorger B Goebel R Schiltz C Rossion B Understanding the functional neuroanatomy of acquired prosopagnosia NeuroImage 2007 35 836 852 17303440 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2006.09.051
Faghel-Soubeyrand S et al. Neural computations in prosopagnosia Cereb. Cortex 2024 34 bhae211 38795358 11127037 10.1093/cercor/bhae211
Schaller P Richoz AR Duncan J de Lissa P Caldara R Prosopagnosia and the role of face-sensitive areas in race perception Sci. Rep. 2025 15 5751 2025NatSR.15.5751S 39962188 11832744 10.1038/s41598-025-88769-9
Rossion B Damasio’s error – Prosopagnosia with intact within-category object recognition J. Neuropsychol. 2018 12 357 388 29845731 10.1111/jnp.12162
Crawford JR Garthwaite PH Investigation of the single case in neuropsychology: confidence limits on the abnormality of test scores and test score differences Neuropsychologia 2002 40 1196 1208 1:STN:280:DC%2BD383gtVShsg%3D%3D 11931923 10.1016/S0028-3932(01)00224-X
Crawford JR Garthwaite PH Testing for suspected impairments and dissociations in single-case studies in neuropsychology: evaluation of alternatives using Monte Carlo simulations and revised tests for dissociations Neuropsychology 2005 19 318 15910118 10.1037/0894-4105.19.3.318
Ramon M Busigny T Gosselin F Rossion B All new kids on the block? Impaired holistic processing of personally familiar faces in a kindergarten teacher with acquired prosopagnosia Vis. Cogn. 2016 24 321 355 10.1080/13506285.2016.1273985
Hécaen H Angelergues R Agnosia for faces (prosopagnosia) Arch. Neurol. 1962 7 92 100 13905818 10.1001/archneur.1962.04210020014002
Bouvier SE Engel SA Behavioral deficits and cortical damage loci in cerebral achromatopsia Cereb. Cortex 2006 16 183 191 15858161 10.1093/cercor/bhi096
Schiltz C et al. Impaired face discrimination in acquired prosopagnosia is associated with abnormal response to individual faces in the right middle fusiform gyrus Cereb. Cortex 2006 16 574 586 16033923 10.1093/cercor/bhj005
Busigny T Graf M Mayer E Rossion B Acquired prosopagnosia as a face-specific disorder: ruling out the general visual similarity account Neuropsychologia 2010 48 2051 2067 20362595 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.03.026
Fysh MC Ramon M Accurate but inefficient: standard face identity matching tests fail to identify prosopagnosia Neuropsychologia 2022 165 108119 34919897 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.108119
Farah MJ Wilson KD Drain M Tanaka JR The inverted face inversion effect in prosopagnosia: evidence for mandatory, face-specific perceptual mechanisms Vis. Res. 1995 35 2089 2093 1:STN:280:DyaK2MzovFKktA%3D%3D 7660612 10.1016/0042-6989(94)00273-O
Boutsen L Humphreys GW Face context interferes with local part processing in a prosopagnosic patient Neuropsychologia 2002 40 2305 2313 12417460 10.1016/S0028-3932(02)00088-X
Delvenne JF Seron X Coyette F Rossion B Evidence for perceptual deficits in associative visual (prosop)agnosia: a single-case study Neuropsychologia 2004 42 597 612 14725798 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2003.10.008
Bruce V et al. Verification of face identities from images captured on video J. Exp. Psychol. Appl. 1999 5 339 360 10.1037/1076-898X.5.4.339
Hancock PJB Bruce V Burton AM Recognition of unfamiliar faces Trends Cogn. Sci. 2000 4 330 337 1:STN:280:DC%2BC2sbivVCnsQ%3D%3D 10962614 10.1016/S1364-6613(00)01519-9
Megreya AM Burton AM Unfamiliar faces are not faces: evidence from a matching task Mem. Cognit 2006 34 865 876 17063917 10.3758/BF03193433
Megreya AM Burton AM Matching faces to photographs: poor performance in eyewitness memory (without the memory) J. Exp. Psychol. Appl. 2008 14 364 372 19102619 10.1037/a0013464
Burton AM Jenkins R Unfamiliar face perception Oxf. Handb. Face Percept. 2011 28 287 306
White D Kemp RI Jenkins R Matheson M Burton AM Passport officers’ errors in face matching PLOS ONE 2014 9 e103510 2014PLoSO..9j3510W 25133682 4136722 10.1371/journal.pone.0103510
Young AW Burton AM Are we face experts? Trends Cogn. Sci. 2018 22 100 110 29254899 10.1016/j.tics.2017.11.007
Rossion B Humans are visual experts at unfamiliar face recognition Trends Cogn. Sci. 2018 22 471 472 29776464 10.1016/j.tics.2018.03.002
Benton, A. L., Sivan, A. B., Hamsher, K., Varney, N. R. & Spreen, O. Benton Facial Recognition: Stimulus and Multiple Choice Pictures (Psychological Assessment Resources Inc., 1983).
Valentine T Upside-down faces: A review of the effect of inversion upon face recognition Br. J. Psychol. 1988 79 471 491 3061544 10.1111/j.2044-8295.1988.tb02747.x
Rhodes G Brake S Atkinson AP What’s lost in inverted faces? Cognition 1993 47 25 57 1:STN:280:DyaK3s3ksFCrtw%3D%3D 8482070 10.1016/0010-0277(93)90061-Y
Rossion B Distinguishing the cause and consequence of face inversion: the perceptual field hypothesis Acta Psychol. (Amst) 2009 132 300 312 19747674 10.1016/j.actpsy.2009.08.002
Bruce C Face recognition by monkeys: absence of an inversion effect Neuropsychologia 1982 20 515 521 1:STN:280:DyaL3s%2Fmtlanug%3D%3D 7145077 10.1016/0028-3932(82)90025-2
Micheletta, J. et al. Familiar and unfamiliar face recognition in crested macaques (Macaca nigra). R Soc. Open. Sci2, (2015).
Rossion B Taubert J What can we learn about human individual face recognition from experimental studies in monkeys? Vis. Res. 2019 157 142 158 31230664 10.1016/j.visres.2018.03.012
Liu-Shuang J Torfs K Rossion B An objective electrophysiological marker of face individualisation impairment in acquired prosopagnosia with fast periodic visual stimulation Neuropsychologia 2016 83 100 113 26318239 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2015.08.023
Rossion B Michel C Normative accuracy and response time data for the computerized Benton facial recognition test (BFRT-c) Behav. Res. Methods 2018 50 2442 2460 29549569 10.3758/s13428-018-1023-x
Bukach CM Bub DN Gauthier I Tarr MJ Perceptual expertise effects are not all or none: spatially limited perceptual expertise for faces in a case of prosopagnosia J. Cogn. Neurosci. 2006 18 48 63 16417682 10.1162/089892906775250094
Jansari A et al. The man who mistook his neuropsychologist for a popstar: when configural processing fails in acquired prosopagnosia Front. Hum. Neurosci. 2015 9 390 26236212 4505628 10.3389/fnhum.2015.00390
David, J. et al. Objective electrophysiological evidence of preserved novel face identity recognition ability in alzheimer’s disease. (in revision).
Corrow SL Albonico A Barton JJS Diagnosing prosopagnosia: the utility of visual noise in the Cambridge face recognition test Perception 2018 47 330 343 29320938 10.1177/0301006617750045
Christensen KJ Riley BE Heffernan KA Love SB McLaughlin Sta. Maria, M. E. Facial recognition test in the elderly: norms, reliability and premorbid Estimation Clin. Neuropsychol. 2002 16 51 56 11992226 10.1076/clin.16.1.51.8332
McKone E et al. Face ethnicity and measurement reliability affect face recognition performance in developmental prosopagnosia: evidence from the Cambridge face memory Test–Australian Cogn. Neuropsychol. 2011 28 109 146 22122116 10.1080/02643294.2011.616880
Murray E Bate S Diagnosing developmental prosopagnosia: repeat assessment using the Cambridge face memory test R Soc. Open. Sci. 2020 7 200884 2020RSOS..700884M 33047048 7540801 10.1098/rsos.200884
Mishra MV et al. Comparing the sensitivity of face matching assessments to detect face perception impairments Neuropsychologia 2021 163 108067 34673046 9647662 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.108067
DeGutis J Li X Yosef B Mishra MV Not so fast! Response times in the computerized Benton face recognition test May not reflect face recognition ability Cogn. Neuropsychol. 2022 39 155 169 36202620 9557987 10.1080/02643294.2022.2114824
Fysh MC Bindemann M Effects of time pressure and time passage on face-matching accuracy R Soc. Open. Sci. 2017 4 170249 2017RSOS..470249F 28680677 5493919 10.1098/rsos.170249
Galper RE Recognition of faces in photographic negative Psychon Sci. 1970 19 207 208 10.3758/BF03328777
Itier RJ Taylor MJ Inversion and contrast Polarity reversal affect both encoding and recognition processes of unfamiliar faces: a repetition study using erps NeuroImage 2002 15 353 372 11798271 10.1006/nimg.2001.0982
Russell R Sinha P Biederman I Nederhouser M Is pigmentation important for face recognition? Evidence from contrast negation Perception 2006 35 749 759 16836042 10.1068/p5490
Nederhouser M Yue X Mangini MC Biederman I The deleterious effect of contrast reversal on recognition is unique to faces, not objects Vis. Res. 2007 47 2134 2142 17562344 10.1016/j.visres.2007.04.007
Zimmermann FGS Yan X Rossion B An objective, sensitive and ecologically valid neural measure of rapid human individual face recognition R Soc. Open. Sci. 2019 6 181904 2019RSOS..681904Z 31312474 6599768 10.1098/rsos.181904
Yan X Volfart A Rossion B A neural marker of the human face identity familiarity effect Sci. Rep. 2023 13 16294 2023NatSR.1316294Y 1:CAS:528:DC%2BB3sXitVaqs7nM 37770466 10539293 10.1038/s41598-023-40852-9