Study On Hereditary Prosopagnosia (HPA)

Face recognition is always an advanced and hot issue in cognitive science andprosopagnosia (PA) is a special topic in it. PA has the characteristics by selectiveimpairment in face recognition. From the point of view of medicine it is generallyconsidered to be a rare condition mainly caused by damage to the brain. So far, onlyabout one hundred PA subjects with the brain injury were found. However, recentlythe new studies show that the congenital form of PA without any traumatism was thecommon event with a quite high universality. The prevalence was 2.5% in Caucasians.Surprisingly, many PA events have a familial tendency. According to the newestinvestigation, PA can be divided into two categories: acquired prosopagnosia (APA)and hereditary prosopagnosia (HPA). APA is the postnatal form caused by braininjuries and HPA is the congenital form in the absence of any traumatic event. Thestudy on HPA is a new topic in the field of face recognition.Investigations on HPA are very valuable both theoretically and socially. Thecognitive impairment in face recognition and the genetic characteristics of HPAprovide the best starting point to the study on the essential relationship betweenpsychological behavior and genetic genes. Systematical study on HPA will contributeto the existing knowledge on the visual recognition processing and resolve thelong-standing dispute in face recognition study. Further more, it will help us tounderstand the relationship between psychological behavior and its genetic basis byexploring the genetic basis of abnormal recognition. According to the high prevalencein Caucasians, more than thirty million Chinese are suffering by HPA. The cognitiveimpairment of face recognition is torturing hereditary prosopagnosias(HPAs)withdifferent degrees of social anxiety and the feeling of occupational disability. Therefore,it is undoubtedly important how to get more HPA scientific facts, how to help theHPAs who trapped in their deficits, how to let HPAs display their talents fully and tomake full use of the social human resources.Through multidisciplinary analysis of genetics, medicine, neuroscience, andcognitive psychology, this study first offers a detailed literature review on HPA,including the conception, scientific evidences, culture anecdotes, characteristicperformance, screening examination and diagnoses, genesis mechanisms, alternative trainings. From the introduction to the research status of HPA, it can be seen that ourunderstanding of HPA is still limited badly although the basic research on it hasstarted. In the study on HPA, one of primary problems needed to be resolved first ishow to get enough HPA samples. Thus, we practiced screening examination anddiagnoses to HPA in Changchun China by using empirical research method. Thisstudy preliminarily provided the morbidity of HPA in Chinese, evaluated the validityof the screening questionnaire for seeking HPA, and reported 10 HPA case studies forthe first time.The main innovative researches have been performed in this thesis as following:(1) The first series of HPA cases were found in Mainland China. 10 HPAswithout brain injures and traumatic events were found in Changchun. Four of themwere confirmed to have obvious familial tendency. It is the fact that HPA exists in theyellow race.(2) The morbidity of HPA in Changchun China was assessed. Byquestionnaire-based screening on 748 college students in Changchun, 707 collegestudents completed the questionnaire and 10 HPA cases were confirmed by diagnosticinterviews. From the result, we evaluated HPA happed in Changchun with theprevalence of 1.4%.(3) The questionnaire with 21 items for screening HPA was certified effective.The diagnosis of PA is usually based on a series standardized tests of visual perception.Because of excessively time-consuming and taking a lot of energy, these depth testswould not suitable for the large-scale screening on HPA. The 21-item questionnairewith five rating scales was used for screening HPA. 46 subjects, 5% numbers on topof the highest scores, were identified as the highly suspicious HPA. More than onefifth among 46 subjects was confirmed to be HPA. It was certified that the validity ofthe 21-item screening questionnaire.(4) The typical performance characteristics of the HPAs screened out werereported qualitatively. According to the reports of 10 HPA subjects, they hardly canmemorize the facial mental images of close friends, parents, or interviewers. Thetypical performance characteristics indicate that HPA is related to the deficiency ofinner-image although they can recognize other objects normally. It is consistent withthe specific hypothesis of face recognition. Another typical characteristic performanceof HPA is all of them make use of compensatory, avoidance, and explanatory strategies extensively in order to improve their face recognition. With these variouscompensatory strategies, they are not aware of themselves troubled in the problem offace recognition. However, they can not explain reasonably their obstacles in facerecognition in their social contacting.(5) The study on HPA promoted the social adaptability of the HPA subjects. Inthe case studies, the researchers provided the scientific interpretations andexplanations of HPA and the support and help for HPAs. Thus, HPA subjects not onlyease their social anxieties caused by ignorance and helpless to HPA sufferings but alsopromote the social communication abilities.