prosopagnosia; face blindness, facial agnosia

Etiology

• neurodegenerative disease
  • posterior cortical atrophy (21%)
  • primary prosopagnosia syndrome (21%)
  • Alzheimer's disease (16%)
• non-degenerative diseases
  • primary brain tumors (40%)
  • ischemic stroke or hemorrhagic stroke (12%)
  • epilepsy (12%).
  • migraine
  • posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome
  • delirium
  • hypoxic encephalopathy
• genetic disease
  • Niemann-Pick disease type C

Pathology

• a neurological disorder
• damage or impairment of the right fusiform gyrus
• temporal lobe & occipital lobes & connecting fusiform gyrus are key brain areas involved

Clinical manifestations

• face blindness or facial agnosia
• inability to recognize faces
  • loss of facial recognition in adulthood is not always permanent

Management

• prognosis:
  • improvement or resolution may occur with
    • posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome
    • delirium
    • hypoxic encephalopathy
    • ischemic stroke

More general terms

• sign/symptom