SUMMARY Two cases of a dissociation between prosopagnosia and impaired capacity to match familiar faces were studied. Recognition of familiar faces recovered in the first patient, whereas prosopagnosia persisted in the second patient despite recovery of matching unfamiliar faces and other visuoperceptive skills. This double dissociation is discussed in relation to current views of prosopagnosia.Prosopagnosia is a rare condition in which recognition of faces is impaired, although the patient can usually identify people by their voice and visual features such as clothing or stature. One formulation postulates an impairment of perceptual classification (within a class of objects) which Whiteley and Warrington' found to be specific for faces. An alternative formulation postulates a memory deficit selective for faces2 which Meadows3 has attributed to an occipitotemporal disconnection. We report two cases of prosopagnosia with contrasting symptomatology. In the first case the prosopagnosia, but not other visuoperceptive defects, resolved while the second patient remained prosopagnosic despite improvement in other visuoperceptive capacities, including matching of unfamiliar faces.
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