False recognition/misidentification of unfamiliar person after cerebral infarction: A case report

A Case Study on Cardiovascular Embolism and Its Impact on Facial Recognition

“…Initially, the patient's symptoms were suspected to be delusional misidentification syndrome, particularly Fregoli syndrome due to the overlapping lesion distribution [1]. However, Fregoli syndrome is characterized by the perception that some person (usually a stranger) disguised as a familiar person is present in his environment because this stranger is in love with him or tries to persecute him [3], whereas the patient in this case identified the unfamiliar person as someone close to him.…”

“…It was hypothesized that the patient's misidentification may have resulted from habitually judging familiarity based on formations other than face and voice, such as hairstyle and clothing, which is to say that lesions of the frontal lobes and uncinate fasciculus disrupted decision and monitoring functions. [1] In order to further investigate on the patient's condition, a functional MRI could be conducted while the patient is doing a series of facial process and recognition tasks, to identity the specific brain regions that are activated during facial processing and recognition. Potential findings from the fMRI study may indicate that the activation of the damaged areas is decreased compared to a healthy individual on the same task.…”

“…The patient was fully consciousness, with standard visual acuity, and showed no sign of hemianopia, neglect, or deafness, but a mild paresis on the left side [1]. The patient had difficulty recognizing faces and frequently confused unfamiliar people for someone he knew.…”

“…However, his performance was moderately to severely disabled in tasks that involve recognizing unfamiliar faces, pointing to celebrities by name, and recognizing family members. Overall, despite he had visual agnosia for prosopagnosia, however, as he retained his sematic memory, he was able to remember the occupations and relationships of family members and answered correctly about the jobs and episodes related to some historical persons [1].…”

“…The patient was an 84-year-old, right-handed man who was diagnosed with cardiovascular embolism in the right middle artery territory, with a medical history that includes atrial fibrillation, myocardial infarction, L4/5 spondylolisthesis, cataracts, and inguinal hernia [1]. He had repeatedly mistaken family members or friends for someone else and was not aware of the mistake.…”