Abstract: The face recognition is an important social function, but prosopagnosic patients faced with distress can not accurately identify the faces of others. By definition, it means that the patients can not identify the faces of the acquaintances and even their own faces. It can be divided into the acquired prosopagnosia (APA) and congenital prosopagnosia (CPA). APA patients’ damaged brain regions including the occipital temporal cortex, amygdala and prefrontal cortex, and the density of these brain cortexes in CPA patients is different from that of the ordinary people. In addition, CPA has transmissibility. Future research can focus on the damaged brain areas of precise positioning, the screening of patients, genetic basis, as well as cultural differences.

Key words: prosopagnosia, acquired prosopagnosia, congenital prosopagnosia, neural mechanism