Facial neglect

Abstract

Following a stroke, a retired industrial chemist, K.L., complained that faces looked "different" and had become difficult to recognize. Investigation of this problem revealed that it particularly affected the left half of a face as seen by K.L. Defective recognition of this (left) half was found for normal faces, chimaeric faces, and for half-faces presented in isolation, whether upright or inverted. The problem was apparent for both internal and external facial features. Further studies with chimaeric faces demonstrated inattention to left-side features in K.L.'s judgements of facial expression and of resemblance between faces. Moreover, the left-half of a chimaeric face was affected even when it was itself forming part of the face positioned on the right in a display of two horizontally aligned chimaerics. K.L.'s spatial contrast sensitivity function was within normal limits for his age. He did not experience differential difficulty in recognizing the left side of everyday objects or of car-fronts (another stimulus class demanding within-category discrimination between visually similar items that display approximate left-right symmetry). He was also able to sort left or right half-stimuli correctly into the categories "human face", "dog face", or "tree". Although K.L. had a left visual field defect, the problem with faces occurred within otherwise intact parts of his field of vision. We suggest that his disorder can be considered a domain-specific form of unilateral neglect.