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Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

Monthly
160 pp. per issue
8 1/2 x 11, illustrated
Founded: 1989
ISSN 0898-929X
E-ISSN 1530-8898
2008 ISI Impact Factor: 4.867

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

April 2005, Vol. 17, No. 4, Pages 554-568
Posted Online March 13, 2006.
(doi:10.1162/0898929053467613)
© 2005 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Behavioral Change and Its Neural Correlates in Visual Agnosia After Expertise Training

Marlene Behrmann

Carnegie Mellon University

Jonathan Marotta

University of Manitoba

Isabel Gauthier

Vanderbilt University

Michael J. Tarr

Brown University

Thomas J. McKeeff

Princeton University

PDF (2,385.6 KB) PDF Plus (378.946 KB)

Agnosia, the impairment in object and face recognition despite intact vision and intelligence, is one of the most intriguing and debilitating neuropsychological deficits. The goal of this study was to determine whether S.M., an individual with longstanding visual agnosia and concomitant prosopagnosia, can be retrained to perform visual object recognition and, if so, what neural substrates mediate this reacquisition. Additionally, of interest is the extent to which training on one type of visual stimulus generalizes to other visual stimuli, as this informs our understanding of the organization of ventral visual cortex. Greebles were chosen as the stimuli for retraining given that, in neurologically normal individuals, these stimuli can engage the fusiform face area. Posttraining, S.M. showed significant improvement in recognizing Greebles, although he did not attain normal levels of performance. He was also able to recognize untrained Greebles and showed improvement in recognizing common objects. Surprisingly, his performance on face recognition, albeit poor initially, was even more impaired following training. A comparison of preand postintervention functional neuroimaging data mirrored the behavioral findings: Face-selective voxels in the fusiform gyrus prior to training were no longer so and were, in fact, more Greeble-selective. The findings indicate potential for experience-dependent dynamic reorganization in agnosia with the possibility that residual neural tissue, with limited capacity, will compete for representations.

Cited by

Joseph M. DeGutis, Shlomo Bentin, Lynn C. Robertson, Mark D'Esposito. (2007) Functional Plasticity in Ventral Temporal Cortex following Cognitive Rehabilitation of a Congenital Prosopagnosic. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 19:11, 1790-1802
Online publication date: 1-Nov-2007.
Abstract | PDF (729 KB) | PDF Plus (683 KB) 
Marlene Behrmann, Galia Avidan, Jonathan J. Marotta, Rutie Kimchi. (2005) Detailed Exploration of Face-related Processing in Congenital Prosopagnosia: 1. Behavioral Findings. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 17:7, 1130-1149
Online publication date: 1-Jul-2005.
Abstract | PDF (1964 KB) | PDF Plus (1317 KB) 
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