I was reading an article about prosopagnosia in THE WEEK magazine and I was dead sure am suffering with the disorder if not acute but still damaging enough emotionally.
Do I know you ?
Err … This face is familiar .. but ..
Wow ! A lovely girl smiling at me ? Hmmm but damn it who is she ?
Do you often have the trouble of figuring out the identity of the person who greets you in a public place and starts talking to you ? Do you find yourself in an embarrassing situations where you confuse the identity of the people whom you talk to ? Do you simply fail to recollect faces at an alarming rate ? Then you can sing the song “you are not alone” , you have me for company and 2% population of the world too in our league.
In that case , you , me and so we have what is called prosopagnosia .The severity of the disorder can vary between individuals. In extreme cases, some people have trouble recognizing even those people that they spend the most time with such as their spouses and their children. This is definitely scary isn’t it ?
What is Prosopagnosia ?
Prosopagnosia (sometimes known as face blindness) is a disorder of face perception where the ability to recognize faces is impaired, while the ability to recognize other objects may be relatively intact.
Source : Wikipedia
I have my own fair share of experiences to speak of in context to this.
Sample this.
I was in a departmental store once. A person greeted me. His face looked familiar. Familiar is what I could recollect. Not his name nor any clue about him. He asked “how are you” I maintain a smile and answer him while my grey cells make all the calculation to figure out the identity of the person. Finally my brain cells configures a result. I figured his identity as a pattern master in my friend’s company. I ask him “how are you? Last time you were looking for a job change?” I get a deep look from that person in confused silence. He replies “ I think you have mistaken …. I run the mechanic shop where you get your vehicle” Need to say how embarrassed I was then ?
Then there are times , I have met some people in streets with whom I have completed the entire social conversation without knowing who their actual identity was except for a familiar face.
Worst case is when a pretty girl smiles at me in a coffee shop or mall and I smile back and keep wondering the rest of the day , who she is ?! Huh.
These incidents and many more alike in my life almost confirmed me that I have a face-blindness to a certain degree.
Types of Prosopagnosia :
Does whole world seem to be inhabited by faces all looking alike ? Do you find all your friend’s faces same ? No differences between your relative’s faces ? Do you find no similarities or differences between various faces you see nor could make the differences in the factors of the face like age , gender etc ? Well , you have the type of face-blindness what is called by medical term apperceptive prosopagnosia . Interestingly , people who suffer from this disorder still are able to identify people based on the voice style , hairstyle , clothing.
If you are the kind who unlike those suffering from previous disorder could find the similarities and differences but could not identify the name or other details of the person behind the face , you have what is known in medical field as associative prospagnosia.
and the third type is Developmental Prosopagnosia which is a disorder that is genetic by nature.
I wonder how people suffering from apperceptive prosopagnosia sees the world around them.When all the faces seems identical , it would be a completely different world to be in. A person’s sense of attraction or aversion towards another would be based on the voice pattern , hair styling , clothing and the vibes generated through the body action and thoughts. Strange to comprehend.
Besides this , I wonder if whole of human population suffers from apperceptive prosopagnosia to a larger degree when it comes to lions , elephants , Zebras , tigers etc ? Well , at least for me all of these animals looks the same.
There are few online test for visual and face recognition . If you are interested check them out.
Some interesting articles on face-blindness :
http://www.prosopagnosia.com/main/stones/index.asp
http://www.choisser.com/faceblind/
Online test for face recognition :
http://www.faceblind.org/facetests/
Surprisingly , I fared better in the online test than I thought but in day to day life its altogether different scenario. May be I was able to recognize the faces since I was concentrating hard for the test and the faces appeared soon for the test.
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Prosopagnosia!!
i learnt a new thing!!
thanks to you yaar!!
btw,check out my recent 55fiction!!
Obstructive Sleep Apnea does the same to you…
Thanks for returning the favour! (New term I mean.)
@ Shruti
@ Ashwin
Its all about learning from each other ! Thanks pal !
I think you are confusing Prosopagnosia with the problem of forgetfulness.
The latter is about not being able to recall people’s name and other things related to identity though you know the face is familiar and you have seen it somewhere.
@ Johnny:
Its a thin line between forgetfulness and Prosopagnosia that people could mistake between both ..
People with mild degree of Prosopagnosia could be typical of the forgetfulness also or viceversa ..
I will try to find more data on this, but as per my understanding, if you cant recall a name when you see a face but know that you have seen him somewhere then it is not Prosopagnosia.
Please refer this article.
http://www.faceblind.org/research/
Excerpts:
*Everyone sometimes has trouble recognizing faces, and it is even more common for people to have trouble remembering other people’s names. Prosopagnosia is much more severe than these everyday problems that everyone experiences. Prosopagnosics often have difficulty recognizing people that they have encountered many times. In extreme cases, prosopagnosics have trouble recognizing even those people that they spend the most time with such as their spouses and their children. *
The examples that you have mentioned falls under forgetfulness which is experienced by everybody to some extent. There
There are two tests mentioned on the site, you can take and see if you have Prosopagnosia like symptoms.
@ Johnny:
The examples I quoted from my life is just a sample. The fact is I cannot recognise people most of the times in crowd unless they are my very close known relatives , associates . Even when I attend marriages , I fail to recognize most of the relatives in crowd , though I know I have seen them. If you go indepth on various research articles on prosopagnosia , the line differentiating both between it and forgetfulness could be blurred incase of those having it in milder degree. Yes , i do admit that many instance forgetfulness can be confused with it also. The thing is , the degree of prosopagnia effect can vary.
I did the two tests , In one i fared badly , in another i was ok. I have mentioned it at the end of the topic.