How Faceblindness Works?
November 29, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
“Faceblindness” has been associated with autism, as written about by Donna Williams and Joe at This Way of Life. About two percent of the population has faceblindess or congenital prosopagnosia, according to today’s Science Daily. A team of scientists has been able to devise a biological explanation for faceblindness. In those who have it,
“there was a reduction in the integrity of the white matter tracts in the brains of individuals with congenital prosopagnosic. Moreover, the extent of the reduced white matter circuitry was related to the severity of the behavioral impairment.
White matter is one of the three main solid components of the central nervous system. The white matter is the tissue through which messages pass between different areas of grey matter within the nervous system. People with congenital prosopagnosia are not able to recognize faces, while the ability to recognize other objects may be relatively intact.
This discovery of reduced white matter circuitry could also lead to further understanding of other neurodevelopment disorders, such as developmental dyslexia, in which the same underlying neural alterations might be present. The findings are also important as congenital prosopagnosia is, in many cases, inherited and so studies of this sort can help us understand the relationship between genetics and cortical development.
I’m honestly not sure whether Charlie has “congenital prosopagnosia” or now. He’s never forgotten the name of a therapist or teacher—-he pauses when we reel them off to him (there’s been a lot). But it might be their voices or the way their held their bodies, or a certain colored shirt they wore one day that he remembers them by. Faces—voices—body posture—height—a particular article of clothing—names: How do you recognize people?
i’ve mentioned this before, but i have some sort of reverse version of this, where i have a terrible time remembering what i look like. i’ve never been able to form a self-image, mentally. i can look at mirrors, photos and identify my features, but they fail to stick for some reason.
but the faces of others i seem to be okay with.
existential dyslexia.
it makes it hard to know how others perceive me, so i’ve always wondered if the self-image problem grows out mind-blindess (or if it’s the other way around). or if it’s something else altogether.
i always appreciate posts like this, they provide a nice framework for approaching these issues.
I lost C recently (thankfully only for a few seconds). I had been to the hairdressers and had a couple of inches off – he had followed someone with longer hair!
I can only remember people’s names once I know something about them, then I can visualise them with their name. I find that names are too abstract to visualise, and especially in Ireland; everybody looks the same! (not much ethnic diversity in the gene-pool yet)
However, if someone tells me their kid’s name; I remember it straight away. Says something about my brain doesnt it?
Boo will look at the vaguest features of the person you are asking him to greet; and come up with someone similar, but he works on the Janet Jackson principle when it comes to remembering people’s names “what have you done for me lately?”
xx
“i’ve mentioned this before, but i have some sort of reverse version of this, where i have a terrible time remembering what i look like. i’ve never been able to form a self-image, mentally. i can look at mirrors, photos and identify my features, but they fail to stick for some reason.
but the faces of others i seem to be okay with.”
Heh, I have this (or something a lot like it) too. I actually wrote a blog post about it not that long ago.
I’m terrible with names, but I have a very good memory for other people’s faces.
Hair is unreliable because it changes. Unless a person has at least one very distinctive feature or I’ve had many chances to become familiar with their face, I depend mostly on voices.”Generic” actors confuse me when they grow beards, change hair styles, etc. Some people have a distinctive gait, but you’re not always in a position to see that. I’ve always had a preference for older men, and now that I know about my faceblindness, I know it’s because people’s featurs become more distinctive as they mature, so they’re easier to recognize.
I recognize mostly by voice and by the way people hold themselves, the way they walk. But I don’t remember names well, so even that isn’t very helpful all the time. Also, my vision lately can’t go to 20/20 with glasses, like it used to, so now people in addition look blurry.
I never remember a face. Well, not unless I’ve known the person for years. And even then, not always, as I failed to identify my mother’s next-door-neighbor of 20 years last week in the grocery store when he said hello.
Alec seems to lose the ability to recognise people when he is stressed and when things change a lot.
Last year in pre primary they all wore casual clothes but when they moved to grade one they have a uniform, for the first few weeks he had a lot of trouble recognising his class mates so we made him a face book of his whole class with their names.
@Casdok,
oh no, so glad it was just a few seconds!
When I have more than one student with the same name, or names that start with the same letter (3 Daniels one year and a David; 3 Chrises this year) I have tended to confuse them. Much to my embarrassment—-I can have the names in my head, but not do so well matching them to faces—–I can always spot Charlie and Jim in any crowd. Indeed, Jim and I know we can spot Charlie front or back—he has a distinct way of holding his body, or distinct enough that we can see it.
I remember still the first time, when he was 5 or 6, that Charlie really seemed to be aware of his reflection in a mirror. It was after he had lost a tooth and he was really intrigued to see himself and in the mirror and the gap where the tooth had been: He climbed up atop the sink and examined himself very carefully.
We had one day a few years ago where I got about 14 inches taken off of my hair, and my one daughter didn’t recognize me when I went to school to pick her up. Her teacher had to do some fast talking to try to convince her to leave with me, and we still had major screaming for a few hours afterwards. There have been times when my son didn’t recognize me- usually when he was in an extremely stressful situation.
Both of them are enthralled with watching themselves in the mirror- my daughter more than anyone. She uses the mirror to practice her facial expressions as well as to check to see if she’s exhibiting the appropriate expression. It’s interesting.