Naleha Johnson

Face Blindness

          Prosopagnosia, also known as face blindness, is a very uncommon but interesting disease. Face blindness is defined as a disorder of face perception where the ability to recognize faces is impaired, while the ability to recognize other objects may be intact. People that do not have the disorder usually have a ‘click” in the brain to help recognize familiar faces but people with face blindness never have the “click” occur. Face blindness is a rare disease and only about 1 to 2 percent of the general population has the condition. Face blindness is a condition that puzzles scientists because the brain areas that control face processing are of normal size and activity level. People with this condition tend to recognize objects more easily than faces.

 A few studies have been done to see why this occurs. Scientists believe that people with prosopagnosia have disruptions in the connectivity between brain areas devoted to face processing. Scientists suppose there is a genetic involvement in face blindness. There are still studies being done to determine the exact cause of the condition. Until there is a cure for prosopagnosia, people with the condition have come up with a few tricks to help them differentiate faces. For example, listening to other people’s voices, feeling their touch or seeing their smile helps them remember who some people are.

 

Who"s Behind the Counter?
http://www.ellentv.com/videos/0-pgurmhux/

Sources:
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MindMoodNews/story?id=6310172&page=1