Abstract
We report a case with prosopagnosia for familiar faces due to a fresh cerebral infarction in the lateral region of the right occipital lobe in addition to an extensive old infarction of the left occipital lobe. The patient was a right-handed man in his 70s. Prosopagnosia and difficulties in recognizing facial expressions were observed, and attention function and processing speed were reduced in the present case. General cognitive function and visuospatial function remained normal except for facial cognition. Prosopagnosia was caused by the brain network dysfunction between the occipital face area, the fusiform face area and the anterior temporal lobe of the left and right hemispheres. Facial cognition, including age and gender judgments, was preserved. Diffusion tensor tractography suggested that this was due to the preservation of white matter fibres in the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus and inferior longitudinal fasciculus of the right hemisphere. It is thought that cognitive rehabilitation to increase attention and processing speed is important for improving recognition of facial expressions.
