Modern Psychological Studies
Volume
32
Number
2
Publisher
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Place of Publication
Chattanooga (Tenn.)
Date
2026
Abstract
In this article we argue and review prosopagnosia and pure alexia from a graded hemispheric view. It is common for classical case reports to describe prosopagnosia with right fusiform damage and pure alexia with left occipito-temporal lesions. These double dissociations have been used to argue for separate and lateralized modules. But recent evidence from clinical, neuroimaging, developmental and neurosurgical studies might show that this might not be the best model. Some patients with prosopagnosia show mild but reliable deficits on reading tasks. On the other hand, some patients with pure alexia show mild deficits in face recognition or object recognition. Lesion mapping and diffusion imaging studies suggest damage to shared yet biased networks rather than isolated completely separate modules. Developmental and surgical studies further demonstrate that one hemisphere can process both faces and words. There is individual variation among imaging and lateralization studies, and weak coupling between word dominance and face dominance. This narrative review brings together these findings and argues for a graded spectrum view of hemispheric specialization. Specialization for faces and words might also be seen as overlapping networks in both hemispheres. This approach has implications which challenge the classical view.
Discipline
Psychology
Document Type
article
DCMI Type
Text
Language
English
Rights
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Recommended Citation
Şırlakoğlu, Ege
(2026)
"Prosopagnosia, pure alexia, and the spectrum of hemispheric specialization for faces and words: A narrative review,"
Modern Psychological Studies: Vol. 32:
No.
2, Article 4.
Available at:
https://scholar.utc.edu/mps/vol32/iss2/4
Department
Dept. of Psychology