The curious condition of prosopagnosia (something referred to – somewhat incorrectly – as ‘face blindness’) is featured in a short article in Time.
Prosopagnosia is a term used to refer to quite a broad range of neuropsychological difficulties that impair people from recognising others by their face, despite the fact that they may recognise them by other features (such as by voice, or even by a distinctive tatoo) and have little trouble with recognising non-face objects.
The article focuses on recent findings that prosopagnosia can result from inheriting genetic traits, rather than only from brain injury, as was previously thought.
For years, prosopagnosia was associated with damage to the fusiform gyrus and was considered quite rare owing to the fact that this brain structure is quite protected from most sorts of head injury.
The inherited version of the recognition disorder seems much more common, although, perhaps, is less severe is many cases.
The Time article reports on the experiences of some people with the disorder, and some of the recent research on the inherited condition.
We previously featured an interview with Dr Thomas Grueter, one of the researchers mentioned in the article. Interestingly, he has prosopagnosia himself.
Link to Time article ‘Do I Know You?’.
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