Not being able to put a name to a face can be socially awkward but scientists now say it could be a recognised medical condition for some.
New evidence suggests face blindness – known officially as prosopagnosia – should be classified as a distinct impairment. Symptoms include being unable to spot a person in a crowd, confusing television characters and an avoidance of using a person’s name for fear of getting it wrong. Research by Bournemouth University and Brunel University investigated if face blindness was a standalone medical condition, or whether these people simply were bad at identifying faces. They looked at 300 Brits who had experienced symptoms from birth.
Lead author Professor Sarah Bate, of the department of psychology at Bournemouth University, said: “Prosopagnosia can be a really limiting condition for those living with it. In milder cases it might just be brushed off as forgetfulness, but the reality of those living with the condition is that it might limit social interaction or, at its worst, mean that individuals are unable to recognise their own family members and friends when they see them.
“Imagine the limitations a child with the condition might face when searching for their parent in a crowd, unable to recognise them. We are always striving to know and understand more about this condition so we can help people face the daily realities of living with it.”
Prosopagnosia sufferers are unable to recognise faces that should be familiar to them and must rely on other social cues or features in identifying people they know. Scientists believe the condition can be inherited but can also be caused by a traumatic brain injury.
The NHS website states that people with prosopagnosia can also have difficulty recognising emotions on people’s faces as well as recognising people’s age and gender. It states: “The main symptom of prosopagnosia is having difficulty recognising faces. You’ll still see the parts of a face normally, but all faces may look the same to you. It affects people differently. Some people may not be able to tell the difference between strangers or people they do not know well. Others may not recognise the faces of friends and family or even their own face.”
Researchers concluded prosopagnosia should be classified as a distinct impairment, rather than a difficulty that lands at the bottom end of “typical” face recognition ability. The findings are published in the journal Cortex.
Prof Bate added: “The finding has significant implications on our understanding of developmental prosopagnosia and challenges our traditional understanding that the condition is somewhat continuous. This could support diagnosis, particularly as we now need to understand the point at which someone’s face processing impairment is officially classed as prosopagnosia, which might mean the condition is far more prevalent than we previously thought among the general population”.
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