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INTRODUCTION: Prosopagnosia is a neurological disorder characterized by the inability to recognise faces. Prosopagnosia is also known as face blindness or facial agnosia. Prosopagnosia can be acquired or hereditary. The prevalence can approach 2.5% of the population. Aim: The aim of this study is to create an awareness of prosopagnosia syndrome among the dental students MATERIALS AND METHOD: A random survey sampling using a self structured questionnaire of 15 questions was circulated among 100 dental practitioners of Saveetha dental college. The data were compiled in excel and the results were statistically analyzed using spss software. RESULTS: Within the limits of this study, we arrive at the results that female respondents (67.55%) had greater awareness than male respondents (32.45%) on prosopagnosia syndrome. The results of this study also show that the respondents are least aware about prosopagnosia syndrome, the cause, treatment and measures taken for this syndrome. CONCLUSION: Thus from the results obtained, most of the practitioners were unaware of this syndrome and its causes. Hence every dentist and dental practitioner has to be aware of prosopagnosia syndrome to treat such patients who address them in an effective way. [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]