Question:
What is prosopagnosia?
What is prosopagnosia?
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'Prosop-' means face; this is selective face-recognition failure.
Updated On: Jun 23, 2026
- Impairment of consciousness
- Being unaware of one's problems
- Difficulty in identifying known faces
- Failure to identify objects
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The Correct Option is C
Solution and Explanation
Step 1: Break down the term. 'Prosop-' refers to the face and '-agnosia' means inability to recognize. So prosopagnosia literally means a failure of face recognition.
Step 2: Clinically, prosopagnosia is the difficulty or inability to identify previously known faces despite intact vision and general intellect. It results from dysfunction of the fusiform face area in the occipitotemporal cortex. This makes option (c) correct.
Step 3: Distinguish it from look-alike terms. Anosognosia is being unaware of one's own deficit or illness (option b). Visual object agnosia is the failure to identify objects (option d). Impairment of consciousness (option a) is a global arousal problem, unrelated to selective face recognition.
Step 4: Memory impairment without clouding of consciousness and selective recognition deficits can accompany certain neuropsychiatric states, but the specific inability to recognize familiar faces is, by definition, prosopagnosia - so option (c) is the answer.
Step 2: Clinically, prosopagnosia is the difficulty or inability to identify previously known faces despite intact vision and general intellect. It results from dysfunction of the fusiform face area in the occipitotemporal cortex. This makes option (c) correct.
Step 3: Distinguish it from look-alike terms. Anosognosia is being unaware of one's own deficit or illness (option b). Visual object agnosia is the failure to identify objects (option d). Impairment of consciousness (option a) is a global arousal problem, unrelated to selective face recognition.
Step 4: Memory impairment without clouding of consciousness and selective recognition deficits can accompany certain neuropsychiatric states, but the specific inability to recognize familiar faces is, by definition, prosopagnosia - so option (c) is the answer.
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