It has long been argued that perceptual processing of faces and words is largely independent, highly specialised and strongly lateralised. Studies of patients with either pure alexia or prosopagnosia have strongly contributed to this view. The aim of our study was to investigate how visual perception of faces and words is affected by unilateral posterior stroke. Two patients with lesions in their
dominant hemisphere and two with lesions in their non-dominant hemisphere were tested on sensitive tests of face and word perception during the stable phase of recovery. Despite all patients having unilateral lesions, we found no patient with a selective deficit in either reading or face processing. Rather, the patients showing a deficit in processing either words or faces were also impaired with the other category. One patient performed within the normal range on all tasks. In addition, all patients performed within normal range on at least one test of visual categorisation, strongly suggesting that their abnormal performance with words and faces does not represent a generalised visuo-perceptual deficit. Our results suggest that posterior areas in both hemispheres
may be critical for both reading and face processing, indicating that these processes may be more associated than previously thought.