Prosopagnosia: (Greek prosopon-face, agnosia-not knowing) a disorder characterized by the inability to recognize faces
I somehow stumbled upon this word one day and bells and whistles went off in my head. I have developmental or congenital prosopagnosia. I can easily recognize family members and close friends, but that's about it. One of the disconcerting aspects of this disorder is I rarely recognize my own face, in a mirror or in photographs. I feel no connection to pictures of me. Looking over old school or family photos, I see an adorable little girl but feel completely disconnected and would not know it was me unless someone told me. It is a strange,slightly unnerving feeling.
There really is scant information on this condition. I found the article from the American Academy of Neurology to be the most informative. Here it be:
Prosopagnosia is a neurological disorder characterized by the inability to recognize faces. Prosopagnosia is also known as face blindness or facial agnosia. The term prosopagnosia comes from the Greek words for “face” and “lack of knowledge.” Depending upon the degree of impairment, some people with prosopagnosia may only have difficulty recognizing a familiar face; others will be unable to discriminate between unknown faces, while still others may not even be able to distinguish a face as being different from an object. Some people with the disorder are unable to recognize their own face. Prosopagnosia is not related to memory dysfunction, memory loss, impaired vision, or learning disabilities.
Prosopagnosia is thought to be the result of abnormalities, damage, or impairment in the right fusiform gyrus, a fold in the brain that appears to coordinate the neural systems that control facial perception and memory. Prosopagnosia can result from stroke, traumatic brain injury, or certain neurodegenerative diseases. In some cases it is a congenital disorder, present at birth in the absence of any brain damage. Congenital prosopagnosia appears to run in families, which makes it likely to be the result of a genetic mutation or deletion. Some degree of prosopagnosia is often present in children with autism and Asperger’s syndrome, and may be the cause of their impaired social development.
Treatment
The focus of any treatment should be to help the individual with prosopagnosia develop compensatory strategies. Adults who have the condition as a result of stroke or brain trauma can be retrained to use other clues to identify individuals.
Prognosis
Prosopagnosia can be socially crippling. Individuals with the disorder often have difficulty recognizing family members and close friends. They often use other ways to identify people, such as relying on voice, clothing, or unique physical attributes, but these are not as effective as recognizing a face. Children with congenital prosopagnosia are born with the disability and have never had a time when they could recognize faces. Greater awareness of autism, and the autism spectrum disorders, which involve communication impairments such as prosopagnosia, is likely to make the disorder less overlooked in the future.
Research
The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) conducts research related to prosopagnosia in its laboratories at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and also supports additional research through grants to major medical institutions across the country. Much of this research focuses on finding better ways to prevent, treat, and ultimately cure disorders, such as prosopagnosia.
View a list of studies currently seeking patients.
I have a hard time following characters in movies, especially after they have had a wardrobe change. The few television shows that I have enjoyed, Dawson's Creek, My-So-Called-Life, The Big Bang Theory, all have a handful of characters, so they are easier for me to follow.
Most movies I have to watch two or three times just to be able to follow the story line and identify who is who.
I remember being in Catholic grade school, which was a Proso. nightmare in that all the nuns wore the same outfit and I was completely unable to tell them apart except for the super skinny one, Sister Peter Mary and the rather round nun, Sister Paul.
I had a hard time telling my own relatives apart. My paternal grandmother and a very close family friend both had similar features; thin build, hair style, glasses and neither had a distinguishable feature for me to recognize.
Whilst still in those pre-teen years, one of my aunts radically changed her hairstyle from very long, to short and butch. I acutely remember sitting at my Grandmas and watching this woman. I was so puzzled because I recognized the voice but the hair did not match.
Just last week at the grocery store, I ran into a woman who started talking to my son in a very friendly manner. I was quite puzzled, until I listened and focused in on her voice. It was his swim instructor. Over the years, I have developed an ability to pick up on and recognize voices to compensate for my Proso. It is a tool that I employ with great frequency.
Phones, especially cell phones, drive me nuts because of the "fuzziness" of the voice and it tends to throw me off to the point that I don't recognize people as readily and often have to ask, "Who is this?" Everyone sounds very different on the phone which may be one of the reasons that I avoid talking on them, if possible.
I thought I had made great strides in identifying personal characteristics and not speaking unless I was positive it was who I thought it was. A couple of months ago, I went to the pizza parlor, placed my order and sat down. I sat really close to this one woman whom I thought to be a good friend of my partners. We chatted for awhile until my order was up. It wasn't until I returned home that I began questioning if I had been mistaken. The first thing that struck me was, "wait a minute...I don't remember Gertrude having teeth like that." As I continued replaying the conversation, other little things stood out.
As when I asked her how the kids were doing. She looked a bit puzzled but added they were fine.
Come to find out I had Gertrude with her two kids and likeable personality mixed up with Matilda who has two dogs and an overbearing air that I try and avoid whenever possible.
Both Gertie and Mathie are about 5'3, with the same hairstyle and glasses and are roughly, the same age. If I had thought about it, the two key points that would have helped me tell them apart would have been weight, Gertie is about forty pounds heavier and, yes, the teeth shape should average made me stop and take a step back, closing my mouth in the process.
Over the years, I have also become very adept at recognizing people by their walk, their gait. Last month I was driving along and saw someone walking a block or two away and I thought...Hmmm, that must be the clerk from the grocery store. Sure enough, it was. Everyone has a unique, characteristic way of walking. To me, it is just like a name tag, perfect for identification.
My Proso. may be one of the reasons that I do not approach people and start up conversations. I cannot accurately convey the deep, unsettling embarrassment of walking up to a complete stranger, whom you mistakenly think is an old acquaintance, and start talking until they, with confused eyes say, "You must have me confused with someone else. We have never met." After that type of incident happening more than a dozen times, I have learned not to approach people unless I am absolutely positive that I do know who they are.
