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Why you should read this article: • To learn about prosopagnosia (face blindness), including its types, prevalence, diagnosis and care • To consider the potential effects of mask-wearing mandates due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on child health, particularly social and developmental outcomes • To identify the importance of using body language, gesture and verbal communication when visual information is reduced as a result of mask wearing Prosopagnosia or 'face blindness' is the inability to recognise people's faces. There are two types: congenital or developmental prosopagnosia, which is the most common, and acquired prosopagnosia, which may occur secondary to brain tumours, stroke or other brain disorders. The authors of this article explored if mask wearing as a result of the restrictions imposed by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic may affect social and developmental outcomes in children, including the development of prosopagnosia. Limited research on this topic is available and, although some relevant publications were found, no definitive evidence of mask-induced prosopagnosia in children was identified. However, nurses should be aware of this issue and discuss coping strategies to support children with the condition. Longitudinal studies on outcomes in children from different age groups who grew up during the COVID-19 pandemic will provide further insight. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term covert recognition refers to recognition without awareness. In the context of face recognition, it refers to the fact that some individuals show behavioural, electrophysiological or autonomic indices of recognition in the absence of overt, conscious recognition. Originally described in cases of people that have lost their ability to overtly recognize faces (acquired prosopagnosia, AP), covert face recognition has more recently also been described in cases of congenital prosopagnosia (CP), who never develop typical overt face recognition skills. The presence of covert processing in a developmental disorder such as CP is a particularly intriguing phenomenon, and its investigation is relevant for a variety of reasons. From a theoretical point of view, it is useful to help shed light on the cognitive and neural underpinnings of face recognition deficits. From a clinical point of view, it has the potential to aid the design of rehabilitation protocols aimed at improving face recognition skills in this population. In the current review we selectively summarize the recent literature on covert face recognition in CP, highlight its main findings, and provide a theoretical interpretation for them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the current report we describe a successful training study aimed at improving recognition of a set of familiar face photographs in K., a 4-year-old girl with congenital prosopagnosia (CP). A detailed assessment of K.'s face-processing skills showed a deficit in structural encoding, most pronounced in the processing of facial features within the face. In addition, eye movement recordings revealed that K.'s scan paths for faces were characterized by a large percentage of fixations directed to areas outside the internal core features (i.e., eyes, nose, and mouth), in particular by poor attendance to the eye region. Following multiple baseline assessments, training focused on teaching K. to reliably recognize a set of familiar face photographs by directing visual attention to specific characteristics of the internal features of each face. The training significantly improved K.'s ability to recognize the target faces, with her performance being flawless immediately after training as well as at a follow-up assessment 1 month later. In addition, eye movement recordings following training showed a significant change in K.'s scan paths, with a significant increase in the percentage of fixations directed to the internal features, particularly the eye region. Encouragingly, not only was the change in scan paths observed for the set of familiar trained faces, but it generalized to a set of faces that was not presented during training. In addition to documenting significant training effects, our study raises the intriguing question of whether abnormal scan paths for faces may be a common factor underlying face recognition impairments in childhood CP, an issue that has not been explored so far. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]