What are the neurological mechanisms underlying face and object
perception? One of the approaches Dr. Marotta uses to address these
perceptual questions is to study the behaviour of individuals who have
sustained brain damage (usually through stroke or head injury) which
selectively affects their ability to carry out these processes. For
example, some patients are impaired at recognizing faces (prosopagnosia)
while others are impaired at recognizing objects (visual object agnosia).
Dr. Marotta utilizes both behavioural methods (e.g. matching tasks)
and fMRI investigations to study face and object recognition. In fact
the Perception and Action lab is one of the few in the world to use
fMRI to study patients with neurologically induced visual deficits.
Understanding what neural mechanisms are affected in patients with
agnosia could significantly improve our understanding of how face and
object recognition is normally carried out.
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Behrmann, M., Marotta, J.J., Gauthier, I., Tarr, M.J. & McKeeff, T.J. (2005).
Behavioral change and its neural correlates in prosopagnosia after expertise training.
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 17(4), 554-568.
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Behrmann, M., Avidan, G., Marotta, J.J. & Kimchi, R. (2005).
Detailed exploration of face-related processing in congenital prosopagnosia: 1. Behavioral findings.
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 17(7), 1130-1149.
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Marotta, J.J., McKeeff, T.J. & Behrmann, M. (2002).
The effects of rotation and inversion on face processing in prosopagnosia.
Cognitive Neuropsychology, 19(1), 31-47.
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