Prosopagnosia or face blindness is a brain disorder. It is characterized by the inability to recognize or differentiate faces. People with minor prosopagnosia may just struggle to differentiate or identify faces of strangers or people they don’t know well. Those with moderate to severe face blindness may struggle to recognize faces of people they see regularly including family members and close friends. In very severe cases, people with face blindness may not recognize their own faces.
One of the most common complaints of prosopagnosics is that they have trouble following the plot of television shows and movies because they cannot keep track of the identity of the characters. Prosopagnosia is thought to be caused by abnormalities, impairment, or damage of a fold in the brain called the right fusiform gyrus. [ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type=”show” ihc_mb_who=”2,3,5″ ihc_mb_template=”1″ ]
This area of the brain plays an important role in coordinating the neural systems that affect facial memory and perception. Prosopagnosia can be caused by many reasons, which include stroke, injury to the brain or even due to some neurodegenerative diseases. In some cases, people also were born with face blindness as a congenital disorder.
In these cases, there seems to be a genetic link as it typically runs in families. It is interesting to note that although face blindness is not always a standard symptom of autism, but it seems to be more common in those with autism than in general population. It is theorized that face blindness may be part of what sometimes impairs the social development of people with autism.
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