Prosopagnosia is the inability to recognize a person's face. People with prosopagnosia can know the shape of the face and they can even identify each part of the face (for example, nose, mouth, etc.). However, they cannot tell you who the face is.
Prosopagnosia is usually the result of a stroke that occurs in a very specific area on the border between the occipital and temporal lobes of the brain.
Developmental prosopagnosia
Prosopagnosia, sometimes called facial blindness, can appear in childhood (called developmental prosopagnosia).
Individuals with this condition often do not realize their condition until they are older and they cannot recognize their faces and what other people do. Some researchers believe that developmental prosopagnosia can be reduced, because it appears to appear in more than one person in several families. In 2005, German researchers found basic evidence of genetic disorders by studying individuals with prosopagnosia in seven families.
Researchers also argue that developmental prosopagnosia appears in children with autism and Asperger's syndrome. Children with this disorder have social development disorders, and prosopagnosia may cause or contribute to their difficulties in dealing with others.
Acquired prosopagnosia
Acquired prosopagnosia can occur after brain disorders due to head injury, stroke, or neurodegenerative disease. Individuals with this condition have normal facial recognition skills in the past, but this ability is reduced or lost due to brain injury.
What are the causes of prosopagnosia?
The neurological conditions that cause prosopagnosia are not well understood. One theory states that this condition is a disorder, damage, or disorder of the right fusiform gyrus of the brain. This is the part of the brain that coordinates the nervous system that controls facial perception and memory. Research has shown that the brain processes facial images in a different way from when it processes images of other objects. There is some disagreement in the scientific literature about whether prosopagnosia is a common disorder or a specific problem on the face. There may be various types of prosopagnosia which have other symptoms besides difficulties with facial recognition.
How often does this happen?
Only about 100 cases of prosopagnosia have been documented in medical literature worldwide. Scientists at the Reseach Prosopagnosia Center at Harvard University and University College London questioned whether the disorder was truly rare. They performed diagnostic tests, and in 2006 reported that after testing of 1,600 individuals they suspected that 2 percent of the general population might have prosopagnosia. In 2004, researchers at the Institute of Human Genetics in Germany gave a prosopagnosia screening questionnaire to 576 biology students; almost 2 percent reported symptoms of facial blindness
Can this condition be treated?
Individuals with prosopagnosia must learn other ways to remember faces. Directions such as hair, sound, and clothes can help identify people. Clumsiness in social situations because prosopagnosia can cause a person to become shy and withdraw. Many sufferers report disturbances while watching movies and television shows because they cannot identify characters from one of the scenes they watch. Researchers are working to find ways to help individuals with prosopagnosia improve their facial recognition abilities.
