Walsh & Hoyt: Associative Prosopagnosia

An associative defect implies failure of perceptual data to gain access to memory stores (face-recognition units). In some cases this may be because of a disconnection between facial percepts and the face-recognition units. In others the facial memories may be lost. The diagnosis of associative prosopagnosia has traditionally been indirect, based on demonstration of intact face perception, as from normal performance on the BFRT. However, as has been pointed out, a normal BFRT score does not prove normal face perception, as prosopagnosic patients who achieve such scores invariably take a long time to do the test, suggesting that they are using abnormal perceptual strategies.