Holistic perception of the individual face is specific and necessary: Evidence from an extensive case study of acquired prosopagnosia

▶ A new case of acquired prosopagnosia shows selective recognition impairment for faces. ▶ GG has normal performance at fine-grained visual discrimination of nonface stimuli. ▶ General holistic perception of nonface patterns can be preserved in prosopagnosia. ▶ Holistic face detection is dissociable from holistic perception of the individual face. ▶ Holistic perception of the individual face is what defines face-specificity.