Exploring Face Perception Efficiency in Patients with Lacunar Stroke: A Study with Familiar and Unfamiliar Face Recognition

<b>Background/Objectives</b>: Stroke is a major cause of disability worldwide, with ischemic stroke being the most common type. This study investigated face perception in patients with lacunar strokes, specifically examining the ability to distinguish and recognize familiar and unfamiliar faces. <b>Methods</b>: We tested 52 patients with lacunar stroke (mean age = 65.97 ± 9.96) and 28 age-matched healthy controls (HC) (mean age = 66.24 ± 10.15). The participants received three face perception tasks: Name that Celebrity, Identity Sorting Task, and Face & Object Solitaire, and were also given the MMSE and mRS clinical assessments. <b>Results:</b> For the Name that Celebrity task, the stroke group had a lower efficiency score than the control group (i.e., they needed 2-3 extra slides of cues to recognize famous persons). For the Face Identity Sorting task, both groups were more accurate when sorting familiar faces; however, the stroke group performed significantly worse than the healthy group when sorting unfamiliar faces. For the Face/Object Solitaire task, the control group performed better than the stroke group on the face solitaire, but there were no differences in the object solitaire condition. <b>Conclusions:</b> Our findings suggest that despite having a normal mean MMSE score (HC: 28.22, Stroke: 27.96), patients with lacunar stroke had difficulties recognizing famous faces and discriminating among unfamiliar faces. This may reveal an overlooked deficit in face perception, highlighting the importance of future interventions that specifically focus on face recognition skills to enhance patients' daily social interactions and the overall effectiveness of post-stroke rehabilitation programs.