A world of constant strangers
Friday, October 11, 2013 - Posted by SunnyHealth - 0 comments
Imagine a world that looks like this to you.

“I’m not good with remembering faces” is an excuse we casually throw around in apologies to failing to recognise someone or match a name to a face.

But do you know that not being able to identify faces is a real medical condition? Known as Prosopagnosia, or face blindness, victims of this condition can see facial parts, but are unable to put them together as a whole face. They have difficulty recognising people they have encountered many times, even those who are close to them like family members and loved ones. 

There are two main causes of Prospopagnosia. Brain damage from head trauma, stroke, and degenerative diseases leads to acquired Prosopagnosia, while developmental Prosopagnosia is usually genetic, or due to brain damage and visual problems from childhood. Especially for those with development Prosopagnosia, it may be difficult even for the patient himself to detect this problem since it impacts on very specific areas of facial recognition.

For example, if one knows he has an appointment with his friend at a specific location, and he turns up finding his friend there, he would recognise said friend because he knows the friend is there. However, if he coincidentally meets the same friend on the streets and isn't aware that this friend would be there at that time, he would not recognise him at all!

In the case of acquired Prosopagnosia, the patient may confuse the image of a person with one that he had before he was stricken by the condition. In other words, his vision virtually time travels back, and in his mind is someone who has never aged or changed throughout the years.

People with this condition tend to cope by using other distinguishing cues like hairstyle, voice or body shape. Dr. Thomas Grüter of the Institute of Human Genetics in Münster shared that many tend to mask their dysfunction by avoiding places where they could unexpectedly run into someone they know, pretending to be lost in thought while walking down the street, or acting friendly to everyone--or to no one. As it can be expected, this condition causes a lot of problems for work and social life.

Don’t be too quick in judging someone you know for being stuck up if he ignores you; he might really not be able to recognise you. Brad Pitt too has this problem – it is not medically confirmed if he does have Prosopagnosia, but he admits that his poor memory for faces has been a point of frustration for him because people assume he is deliberately ignoring them on purpose.

Should you feel that you have such a hard time remembering faces that it is affecting your life, you might want to consider getting a diagnosis. There is no known cure for this condition as yet, but being frank about it and getting the support of loved ones can help greatly with coping.

And if you don't suffer from this dysfunction, then make good use of your ability instead of taking it for granted. 

Sources:

http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1211572,00.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-24385650
http://www.faceblind.org
http://www.cnn.com.sg/2013/05/23/showbiz/celebrity-news-gossip/brad-pitt-esquire-face-blindness/index.html


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