Naming famous faces and buildings

Reports of a dissociation between impaired retrieval of people's names and spared retrieval of other categories of proper names have led to the suggestion that there are separate brain mechanisms for processing different categories of proper names. An alternative explanation states that geographical proper names (e.g. cities, countries) may be spared in patients with proper name anemia because they are easier to retrieve than people's names. Unlike people's names, geographical names are also used as adjectives. However, this explanation can not explain why retrieval of proper names that are never used as adjectives (e.g. buildings) was spared in some patients. This study investigated whether retrieving people's names is equally difficult as retrieving the names of buildings. Results from normal subjects and closed-head injured patients revealed no differences between retrieval of people's names and buildings names, and suggested that both categories of proper names are equally vulnerable to brain injury.