prosopometamorphopsia

   Also known as metamorphopsia for faces. The term prosopometamorphopsia is indebted to the Greek words prosopon (face, expression, part, mask), metamorphoun (to change the form), and opsis (seeing). It translates loosely as 'seeing faces in an altered form'. The term prosopometamorphopsia was introduced in or shortly before 1953 by the British neurologist Macdonald Critchley (1900-1997) to denote a type of *metamorphopsia (i.e. a visual distortion) in which people's faces or specific parts thereofare perceived in a distorted manner. As to the pathophysiology of prosopometamorphosia, it would seem likely that the visual association areas are involved, more specifically the superior temporal sulcus, and/or the fusiform face area (which is located on the right fusiform gyrus). However, it has also been suggested that the condition is attributable to higher-order cognitive impairments. Etiologically, prosopometa-morphopsia is associated primarily with * aurae occurring in the context of migraine or epilepsy (i.e. *ictal metamorphopsia), and with the use of * hallucinogens such as LSD and mescaline. Longer-lasting types ofprosopometamorphopsia may occur in the context ofstructural lesions due to stroke, tumour, etc. Like other metamorphop-sias, prosopometamorphopsia is classified as a * sensory distortion.

   References

   Critchley, M. (1953). The parietal lobes. New York, NY: Edward Arnold & Co.

   Heo, K., Cho, Y.J., Lee, S.-K., Park, S.A., Kim, K.-S., Lee, B.I. (2004). Single-photon emission computed tomography in a patient with ictal metamorphopsia. Seizure, 13, 250253.

   Nijboer, T.C.W., Ruis, C., van der Worp, H.B., de Haan, E.H.F. (2008). The role of Funktionswandel in metamorphopsia. Journal of Neu-ropsychology, 2, 287-300.

   Santhouse, A., Howard, R., ffytche, D. (2000). Visual hallucinatory syndromes and the anatomy of the visual brain. Brain, 123, 2055-2064.