Understanding provoked overt recognition in prosopagnosia

Prosopagnosic patients are unable to recognize overtly the faces of familia r people. However, under specific experimental conditions, overt recognitio n of faces has been induced in some prosopagnosics. This phenomenon of prov oked overt recognition has proved challenging for current theories of face recognition. We first describe clinical demonstrations of provoked overt re cognition, before high-lighting some critical features that any satisfactor y explanation of the phenomenon must accommodate. An account of provoked ov ert recognition is then put forward, couched within the framework of Burton , Bruce, and Johnston's (1990) IAC model of face recognition. This theory i s tested by running computer simulations with the model. Finally, the prese nt explanation of provoked overt recognition is scrutinized to discover whe ther it has implications for rehabilitation work with prosopagnosic patient s.