Phonagnosia (from Ancient Greek φωνή phone, "voice" and γνῶσις gnosis, "knowledge") is a type of agnosia, or loss of knowledge, that involves a disturbance in the recognition of familiar voices and the impairment of voice discrimination abilities in which the affected individual does not suffer from comprehension deficits. Phonagnosia is an auditory agnosia, an acquired auditory processing disorder resulting from brain damage. Other auditory agnosias include cortical deafness and auditory verbal agnosia also known as pure word deafness.[1]
Since people suffering from phonagnosia do not suffer from aphasia, it is suggested that the structures of linguistic comprehension are functionally separate from those of the perception of the identity of the speaker who produced it.[2]