New word in the paper today. Excerpted:

When Margaret Mitchell picked up her son Duncan from his Seattle school, he looked at her curiously and asked, "Are you my mommy?" Ms. Mitchell was taken aback. When she answered, " 'Yes, I'm your mommy,' " he recognized her voice and was reassured.

A short while later, Duncan, then 4 years old, was diagnosed with prosopagnosia -- a so-called selective developmental condition often referred to as "faceblindness." Although his eyesight is perfectly fine, he can't always identify people by their faces. In school, for instance, Duncan has trouble matching the faces and names of teachers and pupils. Like many other prosopagnosics, Duncan, now 8, has a memory that functions normally in other ways. He can visually distinguish between cars and houses and toys. He knows his dog and cat and other neighborhood pets. He's a sociable child and likes being around people. But the frustration of not being able to discern faces has made everyday life -- from attending school to making friends -- unbearably difficult.

Prosopagnosia was first coined in 1947 by a German neurologist who observed that a young man who suffered a bullet wound to the head lost his ability to recognize people. But it's only in the past decade that researchers began focusing on developmental prosopagnosia, or people born without the ability to recognize faces. Studies suggest that up to 2.5% of the population might suffer from some degree of faceblindness.

[As to another child, age 14:] Toby and his mother, Elaine, who is also faceblind, once lost each other at an Easter egg hunt. Eventually, the police had to look for Toby because mother and son couldn't recognize each other in the sea of parents and children.

Some researchers believe that studying "faceblindness" could offer clues to the delicate interworkings of personality and the brain.

I learned about this word when I first studied Cognitive Psychology in college. It actually lends some very interesting insights into how the human brain is structured. Propopagnosics, as I believe they are called, can recognize houses and cars, but not faces, which implies that there are separate pieces of the brain which handle these different things.

Fascinating! Here is a site that has a little about it. 2.5% of the population? That seems high. According to the site I posted, they know very little about it now, and one of the proposed research questions is to study the prevalence of it.

I have had a supreme ability to not recognise people (nor to remember their names) all my life. I have sometimes wondered whether I have a mild case of propopagnosia since my memory is generally pretty good.

A fascinating but rare condition, first named by the German Dr J Bodamer in 1948, in Archiv f. Psychiatrie vol 179 6. It is most often the sequel to a stroke or brain injury, though developmental cases as Shufitz describes are well recognised. It results from any lesion, predominantly right sided, of the temporal-occipital area involving the middle fusiform gyrus of the brain.
Whether the fundamental disorder is due to lack of memory for faces, inability to verbally relate a name to a face, or a distortion precluding recognition—specifically for faces, not other objects,— is not yet fully understood. It is undoubtedly a very embarrassing affliction, in which the sufferer often has to rely on voices, speech and other physical characteristics to guess whom he/she is engaging.
There are many other discrete agnosias which present equally curious disorders of perception. But that's another story.

I've heard about the condition, but not read about it in any depth before. Fascinating. I certainly wouldn't have been able to put a clinical name to it before.

I have a poor ability to remember people's names. I can recognise their faces and voices, but not names. However, I don't think that's particularly rare. "I remember your face, but ..."

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It is undoubtedly a very embarrassing affliction, in which the sufferer often has to rely on voices, speech and other physical characteristics to guess whom he/she is engaging

I can imagine; in the link I posted it said in extreme cases they may not be able to recognize their children or spouses.

Arnie, I am also have a poor ability to remember people's names and always have been. Is there a word for that, I wonder?

One of my children (grown now)has this difficulty to a mild degree. Although highly intelligent and gifted musically and verbally, his brain is hampered by certain other differences. So far he's been able to compensate well enough. I'd noticed his difficulty with distinguishing between people of the same general coloring/build-- no matter how well he knew them-- since early childhood. Fortunately it's mild enough that he can quickly identify the person when they're within close enough range to read body language or facial expression. In reading about variations on autism a few years ago, I came across the information that face-recognition is governed by a specific area of the brain. Interestingly, like RE, my son also has always had difficulty remembering names even when very young.

I was once in the same room as William Shatner and about 15 other people and I couldn't figure out which one was him until he opened his mouth. He's a lot ruddier in person.

Long ago I gave a presentation on various agnosias for a graduate seminar. My favorite was environmental topographagnosia, also known as vuja de, that strange feeling you've never been here before [Carlin 1975]. People suffering from this condition literally cannot get around their own houses without memorizing directions, for example, to get to from the bedroom to the bathroom they would memorize "stand in door; walk to lightswitch; turn left..."

That is amazing, neveu; I haven't heard of that, either.

Bethree's post made me wonder if prosopagnosia is a bit like Asperger's Syndrome.

I thought Aspereger's was a form of autism. Isn't the subject word what Oliver Sacks describes in his first book, "The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat?"

Yes, I think the title character suffered from prosopagnosia, among other things.

I think that people with autism have no trouble recognizing faces, they have trouble reading them. People with prosopagnosia can't tell one face from another.

All my life I have had trouble remembering faces. I pass people on the street whom I know fairly well and don't recognize them. (This probably accounts for why I don't have more friends, or some people think I am a snob.) I had read the word recently and was amazed to know I wasn't the only one with the problem, or that I wan't imagining it. I can remember some faces. If I see a family in church, (where I can stare at them), with the children having mixed features of both, I have a better chance of remembering the parents and children. I tend to identify people by their stature, walk, mannerisms, voice and hairstyle. Unfortunately, I am also bad with names. It will take a minute or two to come up with the name of someone I know fairly well.
On the plus side, I am married to someone who never forgets a face and can tell me the name of the guy we bought our first washing machine from.

We used to think intelligence was a straight line from stupid to genius. Now we see it more as a mosic of traits.

I take a casual art class. Some people are there every week and others drop in from time to time. There are very few people whom I would recognize on the street, but I can remember their paintings in quite good detail.

Missann, your defining intellingence as a "mosiac of traits" is WONDERFUL!!! Good job!!!!!
It's a pity that we've lost so much of our sense of smell. Were we a dog's equal we could recognize the smell, not just the appearance, of others we know.

Asa the dyslexic, who often confounds "marital" and "martial"

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We used to think intelligence was a straight line from stupid to genius. Now we see it more as a mosic of traits.

I agree with Asa - an excellent description.

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I think that people with autism have no trouble recognizing faces, they have trouble reading them. People with prosopagnosia can't tell one face from another.

You are correct about Asperger's syndrome being a higher functional form of autism, neveu. Here was the part of Bethree's post that sounded something like Asperger's syndrome to me: "One of my children (grown now)has this difficulty to a mild degree. Although highly intelligent and gifted musically and verbally, his brain is hampered by certain other differences. So far he's been able to compensate well enough." I thought that sounded a bit like Asperger's. However, I do realize that Asperger's has nothing to do with the inability of recognizing faces. I just wondered if, in some people, that the inability to recognize faces might really be the social dyspfunction that is seen in Asperger's. I am probably wrong, though.

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You are correct about Asperger's syndrome being a higher functional form of autism, neveu

Thanks, but I didn't mean to say that. I've heard that, but the question I was responding to was about the title character in Sacks's book.

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Originally posted by missann:
I am married to someone who never forgets a face and can tell me the name of the guy we bought our first washing machine from.

With most people I can't tell which of their two faces I'm seeing.

Neveu, how about contacting Sacks and getting his opinion? Anybody here know how?

Sorry -- his opinion on what?

I'm sure it's hard to determine the difference between actually having this disorder and simply not having a good memory for this sort of thing. It's a shortcoming of mine that I have made light of with the line, "I may not remember your name, but I'll always forget your face."

EDIT: I notice this is my post #666. That reminds me of... Gee, what was that guy's name? I can't picture his face, but I seem to recall his aftershave had a touch of sulphur to it.

The telephone numbers in the very right-wing Jesusoid town of Gresham, Oregon begin with 666. Somebody's trying to tell us something!