On the Relation between Face and Object Recognition in Developmental Prosopagnosia: No Dissociation but a Systematic Association

There is an ongoing debate about whether face recognition and object recognition constitute separate domains. Clarification of this issue can have important theoretical implications as face recognition is often used as a prime example of domain-specificity in mind and brain. An important source of input to this debate comes from studies of individuals with developmental prosopagnosia, suggesting that face recognition can be selectively impaired. We put the selectivity hypothesis to test by assessing the performance of 10 individuals with developmental prosopagnosia on demanding tests of visual object processing involving both regular and degraded drawings. None of the individuals exhibited a clear dissociation between face and object recognition, and as a group they were significantly more affected by degradation of objects than control participants. Importantly, we also find positive correlations between the severity of the face recognition impairment and the degree of impaired performance with degraded objects. This suggests that the face and object deficits are systematically related rather than coincidental. We conclude that at present, there is no strong evidence in the literature on developmental prosopagnosia supporting domain-specific accounts of face recognition.