Prosopagnosia - Face Blindness

[kurtywurty85]

That sucks :( what if you wanted to find someone you knew as a kid? You wouldn't be able to find them...well, based on their face. And could someone trick someone with prosopagnosia into thinking that they're someone else? I mean, if you don't remember John's face minutes after meeting him and then Mike wants to borrow your toaster so he tells you that he's John (in this scenario they have very similar voices) would you give him the toaster...believing that he's John?

[nbmblownZ]

I was be able to see everything else perfectly fine, except faces. This lasted about 5-6 hours, and slowly faded away.

[nbmblownZ]

A long time ago I was at a party and a few friends decided to do "extacy". I was drinking(this back in my partying days) and decided that I would join them. I took a large pill and after about 1 1/2 hours I started to feel something that i've never felt before. The pills we took were not extacy. I felt very very strange. One of the things I noticed was I lost all ability to see people's faces. No matter how hard I consentrated, I would see a dark blotch over anyone's face I looked at.

[lanthasmj]

There are 5-10 different types and most people fit one or an other category, and there is very little difference between the people within the same category. I usually use clues like clothing or location (where I usually meet a person, ie work, school, a shop). Often people think I don't like them, because I walked right past them on the street without looking at them. :)

[QuanticChaos1000]

I see all the details of a persons face clear as day, I just don't retain that information too long,unless they have a very unique feature. But then there are some people who I have no problem at all recognizing for long periods of time.I've tried to explain this to my friends and family but they just don't get it, and I really hate it when people come up to me and expect me to know who they are without any clues,and I obviously rarely can figure out who they are. I also get really bad migraines

[adiofir]

@QuanticChaos1000 Sound like you might have prosopamnesia, which I think I also have. I can see people's faces, but it takes me numerous encounters until I remember them. And when I do remember their faces I often confuse the names. I work in an office and I often have to ask the other secreteries who's the client. We have a new seceraty, after 4 months she remembered most of the clients, I stil can't remember most of their faces after 7 years! (and it's a small office(

[elbromisto]

I also couldn't recognize my son when I picked him up at daycare, as another boy had a very similar shade of hair and style of cut.

[elbromisto]

Amazing! I have always suspected that I had this problem, as I can't follow movies, especially when the characters are male,

[ThatGuyYouArent2]

This condition is dead interesting. I can scarcely imagine what it must be like.

[danl9991]

I have this condition, but not severly. I can't recognize people I haven't seen at least a few times. But I disagree that a part of the brain is not functioning correctly. It's just functioning differently. In my case, I get "sideband" information. I use that term from computers, to say, information about something, which isn't normally part of the main stream. The stuff I perceive is too abstract to explain, but it's concrete information. I suspect we learn to tune it out.

[alexch5543]

id bang the asian twins

[evenightingale1]

This man with a shaved head came up to me and began talking to me on the bus. I was a little weirded out for a moment until he said a few more words. I recognize that voice! It was my cousine I've known my whole life.

O.O He cut his hair and it threw me right off!

I thought it was just with strangers, but apparently it has seeped it's way into my whole family. DX

[777Leela777]

I think I have sometimes Prosopagnosia on faces of people from other ethnic groups. My ex-boyfriend was from another ethnic group and I always was afraid to not recognize him on the street, usually I recognize him by the clothes on him, the way he's walking and his smile when he saw me. It happens quite rare to me, and if happens then for people from different races. And now I realise how it is terrible to have the same problem for all people.

[LeComfortEagle]

I have learned to blend out ugly people, which now only allows me to recognize myself and 0,2% of the population.

[cspj12]

@LeComfortEagle is that a joke?

[LeComfortEagle]

@cspj12 who said that?

[cspj12]

@LeComfortEagle I just asked, no one said it...

[calspace]

I don't think they mean actually blurry, but more like the facial features do not seem distinct from one another. I see a nose, I see eyes, I see a mouth, but I do not see that the nose is different from other noses, the eyes from other eyes.

[calspace]

I do learn over time. I recognize famous stars, but a brief exposure is not sufficient. I remember there was a House, MD episode in the first season, where the same guy showed up in the opening and the ending, and you were supposed to get the idea that the patient's wife was cheating on him with his best friend. I never got that, because an hour later, I couldn't remember that I'd seen the guy earlier.

[deadpoetoftheyear]

Yup, faces used to be blurry for me.... I was (still am) myopic but I didn't use my glasses until it got really bad. I had a friend who was so mad about this because it "made" me not recognize people. I told her I don't anyway, and she got really angry because "just use your glasses!". Back then I had no idea what prosopagnosia was but her brusk statement made me believe she was right so I didn't think of it for several years. Came out my 1st faint thought was right. I do have prosopagnosia...

[PepeInRedAndGreen]

My problem is so small when comparing with yours, but it's a bit similar. Sometimes I don't recognize faces at the beginning, when I see a new person too rarely and for too short time. That's why I didn't say "hello" to my neighbours for 5years... Just passing them in the staircase wasn't enough for my brain to remember their faces. But after some time I can remember them perfectly well. However I had a few embarassing moments... I can't imagine how difficult it must be to live with real facebl.

[XanderBBo]

Does anybody know the name of the song at the end?

[Giascreen]

the speaker sounds like Tonks

[EnjoyHi5Autism]

Sharing Prosopagnosia on 'EnjoyHi5Autism' YouTube channel and other blogs MySpace and Facebook. Also, audio posts featured at 'EnjoyHi5Autism' on Wordpress. Likewise, original posts and Autism related videos at 'Enjoying The Hi5s of AUTISM-a Family Experience'

[antiHUMANDesigns]

But peopel with prosopagnosia still recognize voices, so is it really so extremely hard? The first time I heard of this problem, I heard that once they hear the voice, they know who it is.

[deadpoetoftheyear]

@antiHUMANDesigns It is different for me. I can hear on the phone who someone is. If I see them I might not recognize them and if they speak, I might not know who they are still. In that context the voice doesn't help me which is weird because it does on the phone. But maybe somehow my brain is too busy with other impressions when it is real life so it can't focus only on the voice... I don't know..

[chrisconwaypeters]

radio controlled breeding for several generations

[yousurfer2]

I find it so embarrassing, people who I'm in the same class with, think I'm ignoring them, by the time I've worked they're talking to someone else!

[OmegaSeekerr]

Wish teachers had. Got scolded & told "getting my nose out of a book all the time" would solve it! Another problem that caused me to fail classes was I can't follow hand movements so I never could get info taught on blackboards. By the time I figured out a teachers hand was somewhere it had already been several other places. I spent all my mental energy on that. None left to actually learn lesson! Called expressive agnosia. I wonder how many bright kids fail school for this reason?

[lcthalen]

@TheAfrican88 Not true. Other animals can also have this part of the brain, this doesn't have to be just for humans. Primates can recognize their zoo-keeper when he's behind glass (and doesn't have a smell or makes sound)...

Recognizing somebody isn't just the face, it's also posture, movements, etc.

[PenelopeWakeham]

Does anyone know if there is any connection with age? I seem to be suffering from this as I grow older and so did my mother.

[deadpoetoftheyear]

@PenelopeWakeham I am getting worse with recognizing people as I get older. Maybe it is real. Or maybe I was more in the same setting as a kid, same kids around day after day after day. My adult life is different. I don't have the same people I see every day.

[CoasterBril]

Hi Im doing my senior project on this topic , I would love if someone with Prosopagnosia could help me answer some questions .

[ellesence]

@CoasterBril do you still need questions answered?

[jatiajul]

Thank you, interesting!

[auraofgloom]

Thats really interesting- I had the worst time with faces until I hit my 30's-the wife says its due to a whack on the head about that time shaking things into order.

LOL

[Psytemis]

This is how I feel when I watch animes... they all just seem to look the same

[dirkdiggler404]

I've struggled with this all my life, albeit not nearly as severe as some people. The thing that bothers me the most is that people think your a flake or stupid. When I was in college I would have conversations with other students and then when seeing them again I would fail to instantly recognize them. Hence, they thought I was a flake or on drugs. The thing is though that I would remember their name and very minute details or our conversations.

[OmegaSeekerr]

@dirkdiggler404 You are blessed to be able to remember names & connect details! There is another condition we at my Autism support & celebration group started calling "Name Amnesia" since we can't find a scientific name for it. Anybody know it? Several of us with or without Prosopagnosia just cannot remember people's names though other kinds of nouns don't seem to cause the same difficulty. Just can NOT! I've both conditions so socializing anywhere with no name tags is just about impossible. I 

[PatJ61]

I don't see faces as blurry; I just don't recognize them. I'm a college professor. A student can talk to me after class, then come to my office minutes later, and I will have no idea who he or she is. I depend on voices and having people tell me who they are. Fortunately most of my students think this is interesting and accomodate my problem.

[kylehyde28]

@PatJ61 So, it's like looking at dogs, cats or other species of animals where we, humans, cannot distinguish one from another without looking at their difference in features of color of hair, etc.?

[PatJ61]

@kylehyde28 Exactly. I can tell very distinct people apart. For example a student with purple hair, multiple piercings, etc. But those who are similar, for example same color of hair and about the same age are fairly indistinguishable to me. You know what was interesting about your comment though was that I AM fairly good at telling animals apart. As a child I lived on a farm and could tell all the cows apart. I cand do the same with my golden retriever when he is around other goldens.

[kylehyde28]

@PatJ61 That's really interesting.

[grewver1]

@PatJ61 what a douche of course you will not recognizestudents faces.... you freaking probably teach about 300 people !!! you dont get paid to memorize faces..

[PatJ61]

@grewver1 Actually, that's not the case. I teach at a college where classes are usually around 20 students. And yes, I do get paid to know my students-- that's the joy of working at a small school. I know their voices; I know their stories; I know how they are doing in class-- once they tell me who they are. Unless their is something really unique about them such as blue hair or multiple piercings, I just don't see each face as that different from others of the same age, gender, etc.

[michaelangela51]

SethyMeM's Q re: if people with proso.. have a sense of how they look to others. For me, any sense I have of that comes from others' reactions to me, not from any internal sense that I have a consistent appearance. I sometimes have trouble recognizing myself in photographs, and I never know if the face in the mirror will look familiar each morning. Faces r usually two eyes, a nose, and a mouth; honestly, I can't figure out how other people tell each other apart. It's not memory degradation.

[TheLeaderNOW]

@michaelangela51

Do you find people attractive? Do you look at someone's face and think/feel that they are attractive? Or does it mean nothing to you, like looking at a coffee table?

[deadpoetoftheyear]

You can overdo the cue thing too, LOL! I remember watching an episode of Star Trek (I can watch series because then the main characters get imprinted in my mind), and there was this episode that that a guy with a sort of camo uniform on. Good cue... But the storyline started not making sense, and I finally realized there were 2 camo guys.... one white and one black. I hadn't even noticed skin color. One (two) people I had a terrible time with was House MD's boss/ex wife, to me they look the same

[Tookyfes]

those twins were NOT identical...

[iheartunibrows]

@Tookyfes soo?

[joshig1983]

If facial recognition devices could do something for these people, it would be interesting to have glasses put a labeled overlay with people's names on them. It shouldn't be too hard to get it working for the 10 or so most commonly seen family members and friends.

[davor1369]

@joshig1983

Haha... it would be funny having subtitles pop up every time someone familiar apears. Fortunately for me at least, close friends and famiy aren't a problem (most uaualy at least) because over time I memorise their features and can actively recognise them. My problems are with people I meet a fiew times and didn't have time to memorise propperly.

[4K4K1K0]

What about people who forget how they themselves look like?

[prosopagnosiaforum]

I've only just found out that I have had this all my life, after 37 years. The more I find out about it themore I realise that it has affected many areas of my life.

Having a "label" for it helps somewhat but when I look back I feel cheated, it's cost me a lot in the past.

[SethyMeM]

extremely interesting. I knew of this condition, but this video gives 1st hand accounts, blurs out the face etc. Do people with this condition have any sense of "how they look to other people?" for instance, somedays we just dont like the way our hair is, or we didnt get sleep etc; obviously they cant SEE this, but do people with prosopagnosia even give it a thought?

[DyslexiaTutor]

Have people with this condition tried Irlen colored lenses to correct the perception? They are sometimes hugely helpful. See the Irlen website. Often colored lenses can correct visual distortions that regular glasses do not reach.  I've seen remarkable improvements in some of my students and have read about others who have found some measure of relief with lenses.

[coldfire323]

@DyslexiaTutor The problem with prosopagnosia isn't in the eyes though; they work just fine and take in all the correct information as far as I know. It's the brain's interpretation of the information that's out of whack.

[Authilus]

Is there a condition in which a person cannot remember song lyrics? I can memorize huge portions of, say, a book--pages can be wholly memorized. I can memorize long chains of numbers. Seems like I can memorize pretty much anything I want to, except for songs and certain poems that have some sort of internal rhyme or pattern to the syllables. I've asked several people about this (such as psychologists working at my school when I was in college), and was only met with baffled looks. =/

[SirMeowMeow]

It's possible that an existing disorder has already been discovered whose underlying mechanisms also affect the short-term ability to retain verbal information that has a lyrical or rhythmic quality to it.

Unfortunately, music affects a variety of areas in the brain, which would make it far more difficult to explain what you perceive to be an abnormal experience in music with words.

[SirMeowMeow]

@Authilus: I'd recommend you systematically test the nature of your difficulties; can you process the information but fail to retain? Something tells me that you are not completely unable to retain verbal information that is sung or has a rhythm, but to what measurable degree are you limited?

Try a string of sensible verbal information, and adding layers of musical complexity to it, systematically testing the shape and features of your specific difficulty with music.

[765lbsquat]

i think i got prosopagnia. all black people look alike to me.  all they faces the same. OJ look like Ray Lewis.

[WebNightingale]

If somebody can see faces normally, and recognize them after time, like everyone does, BUT can't remember their faces when thinking on them, at all, and can't even describe their faces, and if think on somebody, remember everything but the faces,

what on earth is that?

[39218sulway]

I don't know, but I have it too!

[bigforehead19]

I would say that was just a degraded memory representation of the person. This is presuming that you are trying to think back to the person a while after you last thought about them. This happens to all of us, especially after a long period of time, due to the way the memory system works with certain things being forgotten as they are no longer relevant. Hope that helps!

[WebNightingale]

thank you very much! That actually helps :)

[Acoustico1]

i have a question - i read a comment where someone said that they could look at a face and see it clearly the whole time they were looking at it. i was wondering, if someone with prosopagnosia was watching tv, and they knew who a character was, and they concentrated on the face and associated it with the character... if the camera angle changes but the face was still on screen, would it become unfamiliar again?

[bigforehead19]

I don't really get what you are trying to say? Someone with prosopagnosia would not be able to associate a face with a character in the first place as this is the defect in prosopagnosia. They are unable to create or retrieve memory representations for faces and this leads to poor recognition for faces. In terms of watching TV and recognising, this would have to be through external facial features such as hairline or through voice which may or may not change depending on camera angle.

[mungomum2]

this is not completely true. it is very difficult to tell one character from another, on tv, especially if their names have not been given, but not impossible. but in different lighting and unexpected camera angles, all your careful concentration goes out the window. but bigforehead is right in that hair styles and hair colour and especiall voices are helpful...

[Senwyn1]

I had a pretty bad situation at work because I can't recognise faces. I work at a drivethru and sometimes people have to park to wait for their order. I told one person to park and the next driver was wearing the same blue uniform. I didn't realise it was a different person, I just thought they'd misheard me and I gave them the first person's order. It meant the later orders got muddled up, so everyone got the order of the person behind them. It was absolutely awful.

[chiflamico]

Sorry my foolish question: Can a person with prosopagnosia recognize comic character's faces (for example: Mickey Mouse's, Calvin & Hobbes', etc.) or celebrities' faces (for example: Michael Jackson's, John Travolta's, etc.)?

[rsasian]

I got face blind 10 months ago because an accident playing football. I have problems watching TV with my baby girl because I can not recognize any character in the movies, just for therir voices. The same with any artist, player, etc. Even with myself in the mirror. Question answered???? regards.

[chiflamico]

Hmm... very interesting. But... well, I have a fool but curious question: can you, for example, recognize car's "faces"? Could you distinguish between an Audi's and Mazda's (or between X and Y types of truck's or buses') at first sight?

[rsasian]

That is a good question.

When I just had my accident I could not recognize many things. Y was not able to distinguish between a banana and an apple, between things like spoons, Now I can say what model of car is the one y see, but the face blindness comes again when the cars have faces, like in CARS from pixar. I have to make the same like in people, try to identify who is with other caracteristics. Maybe it is dificult to undestand, it is also dificult to explain

[bigforehead19]

This is not a foolish question, in fact an extremely good one!

People with prosopagnosia have also been found to have deficits in recognition of objects which have high inter-category similarity. For example an Audi differs from a Porsche to the right person, but both have similar features such as headlamps and a bonnet.

This has led some people to suggest that prosopagnosia may not be a deficit for faces, but for objects which have high inter-category similarity (faces being a key example).

[luvwotiz]

The reason we can't recognise people in a different setting to usual is, simply because in the usual setting they may be eg. the only petite person with short blond curly hair, so we make a good guess without recognising their face.

In a different setting there is no reason to believe they will appear unless we have planned to meet them and then there may be many with similar features and we need to rely on recognising their face which we can't do.

[SkankinDrunk]

My prosopagnosia is a bit different. I can see faces perfectly clear while I'm looking at them. I can stare at a face for a while and see that it doesn't change, but if I turn away for 1 second and look again it's completely new. I'm certain that I've never seen that face before.

[bigscorpio5]

Same with me.

An if I meet people later again, they seem always to look different as I remember they looked like when I saw them before.

[nipommu]

holy shit, how does that feel like

[yt449]

Thanks for this. I've struggled with this my whole life (now 59) and didn't know what it was until recently. Many embarrassing situations where it'd meet someone socially in an evening, then not recognize them on the street the next day. Interesting, I saw some of the same coping techniques I use in my mom as she developed Alzheimers and couldn't remember people.

[thetopofmylungs]

a lot of people think i am a snob too or that i am ignoring or are mad at them because i dont recognize them...

i notice not-noticing people mostly with my family/close friends/boyfriend and i'm scared when they come up to me when i dont know who they are

its sad but kinda funny

i dont get blurry features or anything though -shrugs-

[Tictionary]

I may have a mild version of this, but I wouldn't say I have the full condition. It's just another mild symptom in my general neurological dodginess! Nice video :)

[1210donna]

I couldn't recognise my reflection as me until my 20s but I always saw CLEARLY. Nothing was a blur. But the face meant nothing, it seemed like a stranger, but I did get used to 'her' and that she was always in the mirror. Most people with face blindness say they see CLEARLY but it is PERCEPTUALLY as if the person's face MAY AS WELL BE a blur. There is nothing wrong with the SIGHT in face blindness ONLY with what the brain does with what it sees.

[fvschie]

I wonder... If you google for "hollow face illusion" and look on Michael Bach's site... Do you see the back of the mask as a (convex) face? As for recognizing people, even though I can recognize faces, I tend to recognize people by stance, clothing style and movement. If a person were to shave themselves bald or wear a mustache, I'd probably not recognize them on a picture.

[PatJ61]

@1210donna Well said.

[Zorica12]

that was a well made video.

[tkcypruss07]

continued..sorry..but the less movement of the iris may play a role in color fading, however nature and time will mostly effect eye color like skin, hair, and so on. I hope this help you understand somewhat why they seem lighter but also remember genetics play a role in eye color and how they change in later acts of life..also exposure to light (all except for nature blue eyes) are impacted heavily when it comes to iris pigmentation changes in people (normally younger people) anyway hope I helpd

[tkcypruss07]

continued..sorry..but the less movement of the iris may play a role in color fading, however nature and time will mostly effect eye color like skin, hair, and so on. I hope this help you understand somewhat why they seem lighter but also remember genetics play a role in eye color and how they change in later acts of life..also exposure to light (all except for nature blue eyes) are impacted heavily when it comes to iris pigmentation changes in people (normally younger people) anyway hope I helpd

[arodisgod13]

y is it when people r blind there eye color is very light???

[tkcypruss07]

I am not sure if thats true or not but I have seen cases pointing that it is. My guess is due to iris pigmentation deficiencies due to genetic disorders or structural damage due to chemicals, light, etc. Most commonly people who suffer from cataracts or total blindness, because the pupil which enlarges or contracts due to the amount of light spreads or compresses the pigment in the iris region is less to non-responsive but the pigment begins to fade with age same as hair and skin color. continue

[AngeliaDawn]

One can manifest this after experiencing a traumatic brain injury. Especially in the eary stages of the injury.

[KathiKY1]

I suffer from face blindness. Every day I run into a friend and am afraid to call them by name for fear I have them mixed up with someone else. On the other hand, I treat every stranger as if they're my best friend... because they might be. I've made friends everywhere I've traveled.

[musicdivinemusic]

I'm so glad you wrote this. I am a teacher and I run into embarrassing situations all the time . I can't remembr my students if I see them out of the usual context, e.g. in a cinema, e.g. But you (KathiKY1) have an excellent attitude about it. Instead of not greeting people for fear of making a blunder, greet everyone and make new friends! That's neat. Thank you, I'll try that.

[BlissInIgnorance]

I'm autistic and don't have this (I can remember faces exactly)... however when I am away from somebody I find it really hard to remember their eye and often even hair colour. Is that anything to do with this?

[GingerAutie]

How many autistc peoaple actually have face blindness? For me for example I sometimes don't recocnise a person, but most of the time not. So it's just more difficult for me, than for other people I would say.

[yackityyacityyack]

Another thing about face blindness is its hard to tell someone's age.

[deadpanfool]

That last quotation reminded me a lot of myself. Interesting as ever -- thanks for posting.