Investigating face perception in developmental prosopagnosia

Developmental prosopagnosia (DP) is a neurodevelopmental condition associated with impairments recognising familiar faces and discriminating between unfamiliar faces. It occurs in people with normal intelligence and typical visual acuity, and in the absence of manifest brain injury. Individuals with DP identify others using non-face cues (e.g., hairstyle voice, and gait) and often experience great difficulty when familiar people are met in unusual contexts or when they alter their appearance. Current estimates suggest that ~2% of the general population may experience face recognition difficulties severe enough to disrupt their daily lives. The cause of DP is currently unknown. This PhD will investigate the perception of visual information in large samples of DPs to form a clear picture of their visual encoding abilities in relation to matched-controls for both faces and non-face objects. The precise nature of the question can be developed with the student and informed by their interests. For more information or informal enquiries, please contact Katie Gray (k.l.h.gray@reading.ac.uk).