Unilateral left prosopometamorphopsia: a neuropsychological case study

Neuropsychologia. 2009 Feb;47(3):942-8. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2008.12.015. Epub 2008 Dec 24.

Abstract

We describe a patient who suddenly developed prosopometamorphopsia after a childbirth; she claimed that the left half of well-known and unfamiliar faces looked distorted. Brain MR was normal, whereas SPECT showed hypoperfusion of the left infero-lateral occipital cortex. No visual recognition defects for objects or faces were present. In three matching tasks with half-faces (Experiment 1), chimeric faces (Experiment 2), or chimeric objects (Experiment 3), the patient was impaired only when she matched pairs of chimeric faces differing in their left half; the same results were obtained after 1 year. This is the first behavioural demonstration of selective chronic metamorphopsia for the left side of faces, and provides new insights for models of face processing.

Publication types

  • Case Reports

MeSH terms

  • Face
  • Female
  • Functional Laterality*
  • Humans
  • Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Neuropsychological Tests
  • Occipital Lobe / blood supply*
  • Occipital Lobe / diagnostic imaging
  • Occipital Lobe / physiopathology
  • Parturition
  • Pattern Recognition, Visual*
  • Prosopagnosia / diagnostic imaging
  • Prosopagnosia / etiology
  • Prosopagnosia / psychology*
  • Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon
  • Visual Fields*
  • Young Adult