Deficits in face and object processing manifest differently in normal aging and developmental prosopagnosia

Broadly tuned face representation in older adults assessed by categorical perception.

“…We return to this point in the next section. Such broad tuning, especially for unfamiliar faces, would account for the greater tendency of older, than younger, adults to misclassify a novel face as familiar (i.e., false alarm errors; Bartlett et al, 1991; Lee et al, 2014). By comparison, the greater CP among familiar than unfamiliar faces suggests that mistaking one familiar face for another is less likely to occur as one ages (i.e., intact hits; Bartlett et al, 1991; Lee et al, 2014), but is still more likely than in younger adults.…”

“…Using a behavioral CP paradigm, our study provides insights into neural representations of faces in old age. Broad tuning could result in two types of behavioral errors, false alarms and misses, and the literature indicates that older adults are likely to make more false alarms but show equivalent hits to those of younger adults (e.g., Bartlett et al, 1991; Lee et al, 2014; Searcy et al, 1999). Our results suggest that reduced identification and discrimination of faces are due to less precise face representations in older adults, consistent with the idea that older age is associated with broader tuning of neural responses to faces, making it more difficult for older adults to identify faces and to discriminate between old and new faces.…”

“…One common complaint among older adults (usually 60 years and older) is that even unfamiliar faces look familiar. Indeed, many studies have reported that older adults successfully detected target faces (hits) but falsely recognized lures as targets (more false alarms; e.g., Boutet & Faubert, 2006; Grady, Bernstein, Beig, & Siegenthaler, 2002; Lee et al, 2014; see a review in Searcy et al, 1999, for earlier studies). False identification of a lure face may be related to increased feelings of familiarity that older adults tend to have, a problem that is not unique to faces (Bartlett, Strater, & Fulton, 1991).…”

“…Normal aging is associated with face perception and recognition deficits (e.g., Boutet & Faubert, 2006; Grady, McIntosh, Horwitz, & Rapoport, 2000; Habak, Wilkinson, & Wilson, 2008; Lee, Paleja, Grady, & Moscovitch, 2014; Searcy, Bartlett, & Menon, 1999). One common complaint among older adults (usually 60 years and older) is that even unfamiliar faces look familiar.…”