Ask someone with prosopagnosia anything!

[Poseur]

<p>Alright, so prosopagnosia is a cognitive disability that renders someone unable to recognize faces (or severely deficient in doing so.) Not much is definitively known about its neurological basis, but there’s a lot of exciting stuff being done right now, which I can elaborate upon if anyone asks.</p>

<p>Prosopagnosia is a spectrum; some people have it really badly (can’t recognize themselves in photos or mirrors [one woman has to make faces at herself in public bathrooms to tell which one is her!], can’t recognize their closest family members, can’t distinguish between any members of the opposite gender) whereas to others, like me, it’s not a huge deal.</p>

<p>My symptoms:
– I can’t recognize most celebrities, despite a fairly normal exposure to pop culture.
– I find it difficult to follow movies because I can’t keep characters straight (The Departed was hell for me, hahaha).
– I have to meet someone several times before I’d be able to recognize them comfortably in a strange setting.</p>

<p>So since I don’t have the condition too severely, I’m not that interesting, but I’m doing this year-long research project on it (BTW, anyone in Baltimore available for cognitive testing?), so I’ve got plenty of crazy stories from others.</p>

<p>Here are some excerpts from [this</a> Wired magazine article](<a href=“http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.11/blind.html]this”>Face Blind | WIRED):

For most of his childhood, Choisser thought he was normal. He just assumed that nobody saw faces. But slowly, it dawned on him that he was different. Other people recognized their mothers on the street. He did not. During the 1970s, as a small-town lawyer in the Illinois Ozarks, he struggled to convince clients that he was competent even though he couldn’t find them in court. He never greeted the judges when he passed them on the street – everyone looked similarly blank to him – and he developed a reputation for arrogance.

Tom Uglow, a graphic designer in London, didn’t have a problem perceiving that it was a girl watching him across the bar. Her blond hair had a nice sheen. She seemed pretty. Uglow ordered another beer, downed it, and walked her way. He was about to introduce himself when she cut him off.</p>

<p>“Hi, Tom,” she said, no longer smiling. “Why were you making eyes at me?”</p>

<p>“Damn,” he thought. “This isn’t going as planned.”</p>

<p>Her voice sounded familiar. He searched her face but couldn’t place her. This happened more than he liked to admit.</p>

<p>“How’ve you been?” he asked, casually trying to fish for a clue as to who she was.</p>

<p>“Better now that we’re broken up.”</p>

<p>Ah! It was his ex-girlfriend. Once he’d had a moment to process her voice, he was able to place her. They had dated for a year. Definitely not a good person to be hitting on. It was a problem: Every time he saw a face, it felt like it was for the first time.

</p>

<p>And here are some excerpts from interviews I’ve conducted with more severe prosopagnosics:

9. Give me an example of someone whom you WOULD recognize, in any context.
I would now recognize a caricature of Obama–long face and huge ears. I would not recognize a picture of Obama. I did tell the difference between McCain and Obama at the debate–one wore a red tie and the other a blue tie.</p>

<p>I recognize people at work when they walk away from me. I have worked in the same place for 17 years and I know many people’s walks.</p>

<p>Now, give me an example of someone whom you would not.
I didn’t recognize my mother when she was in a place I did not expect her.

7. Do you have strategies designed to avoid awkward encounters with
people that you don’t recognize?
Lots! For one thing I don’t greet people by name. At work, I ask
people what their email address is (from which I can figure out their
name). At church, I warn people that I will not recognize them the
next time, and explain that it is their job to greet me first.</p>

<p>In what situation would you tellsomeone about your prosopagnosia?
If I expect to see the person repeatedly, for example at church, or
at work.</p>

<p>8. What is your job and has prosopagnosia had an effect on your
performance?
I work in a computer department. I think that prosopagnosia had an
influence on my choosing this field, since there is not as much
social interaction as there is in some other fields. I think I might
have gotten farther in my career if prosopagnosia had not made the
political side of the job more difficult (although I also have some
aspergers traits, which may be a larger issue in that respect. And
the combination of aspergers traits and prosopagnosia is much harder
to compensate for, since the compensatory techniques for each one are
harder when you have both conditions).</p>

<p>9. Give me an example of someone whom you WOULD recognize, in any
context. Now, give me an example of someone whom you would not.
I normally recognize close friends and family, but there are
certainly cases where I would not recognize them – if I saw them in
an unexpected context with a hat on, for example. In reality what
usually happens is that there is a delayed effect of completing
the ‘recognition’ phase when you encounter someone. With someone I
know well, it might take a few seconds for me to figure out who they
are. With someone I know less well it might take several minutes, or
I might never figure it out. So when you have enough coping
techniques, it is hard to even categorize a situation as ‘recognize’
or ‘not recognize’ because it is usually ‘recognize with a delay’.

9. Give me an example of someone whom you WOULD recognize, in any context.</p>

<p>I can not recognize anyone who is not moving. (I use the way people move to recognize them). When moving, I always recognize my husband. I think that is part of what attraced me to him in the first place.</p>

<p>9 b. Now, give me an example of someone whom you would not.
When my son was too young to know he needed to identify himself, I frequently grabbed the wrong child from play school.
A good rule of thumb is that since I can choose my frinds they are generally people I can pick out of a crowd. I can not choose my family, so I can not recognize them.

& wow:

[quote]
6. Do you have any vivid memories from your childhood relating to
facial recognition deficits?
At my church when I was 14 they were encouraging everyone to make an extra effort to welcome new comers. Seeing a man I did not recognize, I went up to him and introduced myself, and asked him his name… It turned out he was my uncle. I did not know what face blindness was, but I did my best to recover from this social blunder by telling him I just wanted to make sure he felt welcome.
The next Sunday I saw another man I did not recognize so I decided to try again. It turned out to be the same uncle. This time it was quite a bit harder to recover from this social blunder.
The third Sunday I did the same thing again.
After that I became very anti social and didn’t talk to anyone unless I knew who they were - which limited me to about 2 people. Of course, it could just be that I was anti social becasue I was a teenager.<a href=“I%20have%20lots%20more;%20those%20are%20just%20the%20first%20few%20interesting%20excerpts%20I%20came%20across.”>/quote</a></p>

<p>One moar thing for mah OP: [Visual</a> and Face Recognition Tests on the Internet](<a href=“http://www.faceblind.org/facetests/index.php]Visual”>http://www.faceblind.org/facetests/index.php) <– some facial recognition tests so you can see if you have a deficit lolz</p>

[Russell7]

<p>I guess you wouldn’t make a very good eye witness.</p>

[Poseur]

<p>

@Russell7

I guess you wouldn’t make a very good eye witness.

Lol yeah… when I was growing up I remember wondering how it was possible for people to pick out criminals from lineups. I was like “lolwut even if I got a clear look at the person’s face, how could I remember it weeks later?!” … but apparently normal people can do that! </p>

<p>This one guy in the Yahoo! group for prosopagnosics is gonna be on trial for not being able to testify for a robbery:

My court case is coming up in the new year for “mischief & obstruction” because the police refuse to believe I am unable to identify, even slightly, the person who committed a robbery I witnessed. The legal system has decided I know this person & refuse to tell his identity.</p>

<p>As a part owner of a pub, if I am found guilty, I may not be able to keep my liquor license. Kind of hard to own a fine drinking establishment (or even my pub) without the ability to serve alcohol. The one thing in my favour is the police in my town know me, are used to me not recognizing people immediately & are willing to go to court with me.

</p>

[Penn2013]

<p>:( recognize this?</p>

<p>lolwut?</p>

[Penn2013]

<p>I guess you wouldn’t make a very good eye witness.</p>

[Poseur]

<p>That’s funny because I guess you wouldn’t make a very good eye witness.</p>

[pnl09]

<p>ahhhh, that’s sooo interesting. i’ve never heard of it. kinda reminds me of synesthesia. is there any way to correct it?</p>

[Russell7]

<p>lol @ that test. I always knew I was a genius.</p>

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[Poseur]

<p>^ GJDM. I got 42/72 on a similar test lolz… I forget what I got on that version.</p>

<p>

@pnl09

ahhhh, that’s sooo interesting. i’ve never heard of it. kinda reminds me of synesthesia. is there any way to correct it?

Interesting point, 'cause there’s one guy with a website… I don’t remember his name offhand… but he’s a synesthete and a prosopagnosic and he wonders if they’re related! Perceptual anomalies are cOoL.</p>

<p>There’s no way to correct it that we know of so far, but [recently</a> a study showed that oxytocin improves facial recognition](<a href=“http://mlenta.com/323]recently”>http://mlenta.com/323) in the short term… pretty exciting breakthrough, actually. It’s been explored before as the basis of social recognition in mice, but this is the first time something like this has been done with humans.</p>

[Mike41691]

<p>I got 62%, apparently I have a deficit of some sort. How bout that. It’s not all that surprising, I’ve always sucked at recognizing people, but now I have a zomglegit online test to prove it</p>

[ambiguity]

<p>I got 60/72 correct. I don’t know if all those tested had the same six faces, but of the six I had, only four looked distinct enough to remember. There was the wide one, the feminine one, the one with the sloping forehead, and the one with the distinct cheekbones. The other two didn’t look special in a particular way, so I couldn’t remember them. Interesting test.</p>

[fizix2]

<p>

i guess you wouldn’t make a very good eye witness.

</p>

<p>+1 .</p>

[ThisCouldBeHeavn]

<p>I don’t know if I’m the only one thinking this, but I don’t think you’d make a very good eyewitness.</p>

[Penn2013]

<p>I don’t know if I’m the only one thinking this, but I don’t think you’d make a very good eyewitness.</p>

[ThisCouldBeHeavn]

<p>I don’t know if I’m the only one thinking this, but I don’t think you’d make a very good eyewitness.</p>

[mcb52]

<p>Have people who didn’t know about your condition ever thought you were rude because you ‘ignored’ them or something?</p>

[JakaAmalgam]

<p>Actually, it doesn’t even matter if you’d make a good eyewitness, since even people without prosopagnosia can’t accurately describe a witness 4/10 times. There’s been numerous studies where they’ve set up a situation where a robbery happens in front of a group of people, and then they ask the people to describe the person committing the robbery, and I think significantly more than majority could not identify the person correctly, even though he was unmasked and right in front of them.</p>

[ThisCouldBeHeavn]

<p>I don’t know if I’m the only one thinking this, but I don’t think you’d make a very good eyewitness.</p>

[GoldShadow]

<p>If you have a hard time recognizing somebody, can you recognize them upon hearing their name (ie, they tell you?).</p>