tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23843721764120652442024-03-13T14:35:16.304-05:00No Face Like HomeLie, deny, sigh, these have been my social coping skills. Trying to figure out a better way to go through life as a prosopagnosic, aka, faceblind person.dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15338839345653126512noreply@blogger.comBlogger73125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2384372176412065244.post-55861461664059447232013-11-14T19:39:00.001-05:002013-11-14T19:41:15.896-05:00University lab looking to crack face blindnessBrad Duchaine is the researcher I did testing with when he was at the University College of London.<br />
<br />
Please click on titel to take you to the Minnesota Daily website where this article was published.<br />
<h2>
University lab looking to crack face blindness<br />
The Yonas Visual Perception Lab is seeking treatments and new methods of diagnosis.</h2>
<br />
ByAnne Millerbernd [3] October 24, 2013 (3 weeks ago)<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Stephanie Chase used to recognize some of her Valleyfair coworkers by their ponytails. She thought nothing of it until a male coworker had to consistently remind her of who he was.<br />
<br />
Then Chase realized something wasn’t right. She then happened upon a description of prosopagnosia, also known as face blindness, and she discovered she has the disorder.<br />
<br />
People with face blindness have difficulty recognizing faces, sometimes even their own. A team of University researchers is working to find the best methods of diagnoses and treatments for the disorder.<br />
<br />
Albert Yonas leads the the Yonas Visual Perception Lab, where Chase is a research assistant.<br />
<br />
“Most people don’t know the problem exists; some people grow up to think everybody’s got the problem,” Yonas said. “Some people just have unhappy lives,”<br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">He said about 2 to 2.5 percent of people worldwide have face blindness.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Vanessa Adamson, the Yonas lab’s manager, said the severity of face blindness varies on a case-by-case basis. Someone could forget a face moments after it’s gone or struggle to differentiate any two faces. In extreme cases, she said, someone with face blindness can look at a picture of themselves without recognizing it’s them.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Chase said people sometimes think she’s “snubbing” them when she doesn’t recognize them and she hesitates to tell others about her face blindness.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“I’ll totally remember a conversation I had with them, just not their face,” she said. “I think that’s a hard distinction for people to make, especially at first.”</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">There are two different types of face blindness, acquired and developed, Yonas said. Generally, those with acquired face blindness have experienced brain damage and lost the ability to recognize familiar faces, he said.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The Yonas Lab is focusing its research on developmental face blindness,<br />
specifically in children.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Developmental face blindness is likely caused by development issues in the region of the brain responsible for face recognition, said University research fellow Kirsten Dalrymple.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“We have machinery in our brains that is allocated for face recognition alone,” she said. “If that machinery doesn’t develop, you’re not going to be able to do that specialized process.”</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">In the Yonas Lab, researchers test children for face blindness by asking them to memorize what three pictures of faces look like, Dalrymple said.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Researchers then present the children with another set of three faces, one from the previous set, and ask them to identify the face they’ve seen before.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">But face blindness is a difficult disorder to identify, even for those who have it, Dalrymple said. Many people with the disorder use cues like hair, skin color and clothes instead of faces to remember people.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Those with developmental face blindness often spend their lives unaware that they have the disorder, Dalrymple said. They think everyone grows up “learning who people are” instead of being able to identify their faces, she said.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">There are indications that face blindness is a genetic disorder, Dalrymple said, but it hasn’t been linked to one gene yet.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Brad Duchaine, an associate professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth, is also researching face blindness, but he focuses on its acquired form.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Duchaine said there are two different stages in face processing — the stage where a face is seen and the stage where it is remembered and identified as a person.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">He believes most instances of face blindness are caused by visual perception problems, though this can be difficult to recognize for people with the<br />
disorder, he said.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> “It feels like a memory problem because when you’re looking at a face for the first time, you have no idea what it should be looking like,” Duchaine said. “But then when you fail to recognize it again, it feels like a memory<br />
failure.”</span></div>
<div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">He said about 2 to 2.5 percent of people worldwide have face blindness.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Vanessa Adamson, the Yonas lab’s manager, said the severity of face blindness varies on a case-by-case basis. Someone could forget a face moments after it’s gone or struggle to differentiate any two faces. In extreme cases, she said, someone with face blindness can look at a picture of themselves without recognizing it’s them.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Chase said people sometimes think she’s “snubbing” them when she doesn’t recognize them and she hesitates to tell others about her face blindness.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“I’ll totally remember a conversation I had with them, just not their face,” she said. “I think that’s a hard distinction for people to make, especially at first.”</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">There are two different types of face blindness, acquired and developed, Yonas said. Generally, those with acquired face blindness have experienced brain damage and lost the ability to recognize familiar faces, he said.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The Yonas Lab is focusing its research on developmental face blindness,<br />
specifically in children.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Developmental face blindness is likely caused by development issues in the region of the brain responsible for face recognition, said University research fellow Kirsten Dalrymple.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">“We have machinery in our brains that is allocated for face recognition alone,” she said. “If that machinery doesn’t develop, you’re not going to be able to do that specialized process.”</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">In the Yonas Lab, researchers test children for face blindness by asking them to memorize what three pictures of faces look like, Dalrymple said.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Researchers then present the children with another set of three faces, one from the previous set, and ask them to identify the face they’ve seen before.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">But face blindness is a difficult disorder to identify, even for those who have it, Dalrymple said. Many people with the disorder use cues like hair, skin color and clothes instead of faces to remember people.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Those with developmental face blindness often spend their lives unaware that they have the disorder, Dalrymple said. They think everyone grows up “learning who people are” instead of being able to identify their faces, she said.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">There are indications that face blindness is a genetic disorder, Dalrymple said, but it hasn’t been linked to one gene yet.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Brad Duchaine, an associate professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth, is also researching face blindness, but he focuses on its acquired form.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Duchaine said there are two different stages in face processing — the stage where a face is seen and the stage where it is remembered and identified as a person.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">He believes most instances of face blindness are caused by visual perception problems, though this can be difficult to recognize for people with the<br />
disorder, he said.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #444444; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.25em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> “It feels like a memory problem because when you’re looking at a face for the first time, you have no idea what it should be looking like,” Duchaine said. “But then when you fail to recognize it again, it feels like a memory<br />
failure.”</span></div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />
<a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pengoopmcjnbflcjbmoeodbmoflcgjlk" style="font-size: 13px;">'via Blog this'</a>dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15338839345653126512noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2384372176412065244.post-22376475307567005282013-10-04T16:03:00.001-05:002013-10-04T16:03:00.729-05:00Living With Face Blindness - Sanjana Chowhan - The Atlantic<a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/09/living-with-face-blindness/279898/">Living With Face Blindness - Sanjana Chowhan - The Atlantic</a>: <br />
<br />
<a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pengoopmcjnbflcjbmoeodbmoflcgjlk" style="font-size: 13px;">'via Blog this'</a><br />
<br />
<article class="" id="article" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.84375px; overflow: hidden;"><h1 class="headline" style="color: #242b30; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 36px; line-height: 1em; margin: 0px 0px 6px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">Living With Face Blindness</h1><div class="dek" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.4em;">Prosopagnosia is a condition that can make it impossible to recognize the faces of others, from friends to movie characters to parents. To varying degrees, it affects about two percent of people.</div><div class="metadata" style="margin: 10px 0px 21px; overflow: hidden;"><span class="authors" style="border-right-color: rgb(114, 114, 114); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; color: #5c5c5c; display: block; float: left; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px; padding-right: 5px;"><a class="author" href="http://www.theatlantic.com/sanjana-chowhan/" rel="author" style="border: none !important; color: #5c5c5c; display: inline; float: none; margin-right: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase;">SANJANA CHOWHAN</a></span><span class="date last-child" style="border: none !important; color: #5c5c5c; display: block; float: left; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px; margin-right: 0px; padding-right: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; white-space: nowrap;"><time datetime="2013-09-24T09:05:00-04:00" style="border-right-style: none !important; 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<span style="display: inline-block !important; font-size: 1px !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; vertical-align: baseline !important;"><span id="li_ui_li_gen_1380919601096_0" style="display: block !important; overflow: visible !important; position: relative !important;"><a href="" id="li_ui_li_gen_1380919601096_0-link" style="border: 0px !important; color: #00598c; display: inline-block !important; height: 20px !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;"><span id="li_ui_li_gen_1380919601096_0-logo" style="background-image: url(http://s.c.lnkd.licdn.com/scds/common/u/img/sprite/sprite_connect_v13.png) !important; background-position: 0px -276px !important; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat !important; border: 0px !important; cursor: pointer !important; display: block !important; float: right !important; height: 20px !important; left: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; overflow: hidden !important; padding: 0px !important; position: absolute !important; text-indent: -9999em !important; top: 0px !important; width: 20px !important;">in</span><span id="li_ui_li_gen_1380919601096_0-title" style="background-color: rgb(236, 236, 236) !important; background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient(top, rgb(254, 254, 254) 0%, rgb(236, 236, 236) 100%) !important; border-bottom-color: rgb(185, 185, 185) !important; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px !important; border-bottom-right-radius: 2px !important; border-bottom-style: solid !important; border-right-color: rgb(191, 191, 191) !important; border-right-style: solid !important; border-top-color: rgb(226, 226, 226) !important; border-top-left-radius: 0px !important; border-top-right-radius: 2px !important; border-top-style: solid !important; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 0px !important; color: rgb(51, 51, 51) !important; cursor: pointer !important; display: block !important; float: left !important; height: 18px !important; line-height: 20px !important; margin-left: 1px !important; overflow: hidden !important; padding: 0px 4px 0px 23px !important; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 1px 0px !important; vertical-align: top !important; white-space: nowrap !important;"><span id="li_ui_li_gen_1380919601096_0-mark" style="display: inline-block !important; overflow: hidden !important; width: 0px !important;"></span><span id="li_ui_li_gen_1380919601096_0-title-text" style="background-color: transparent !important; background-image: none !important; display: inline-block !important; float: none !important; font-family: Arial, sans-serif !important; font-size: 11px !important; font-weight: bold !important; height: 18px !important; vertical-align: baseline !important;">Share</span></span></a></span></span></span></div><div class="more-btn-container" style="margin: -10px 0px 0px -10px; padding: 10px; position: absolute; width: 60px; z-index: 100;"><div class="more-btn-label" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/front/images/article/article-icons.png); background-position: 100% -102px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; display: inline-block; font-family: 'arial black', arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; padding: 0px 13px 5px 0px; text-align: left;">More</div></div></div><div class="article-content" style="clear: none; float: right; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.45em; width: 570px;"><figure style="margin: 0px;"><img alt="[IMAGE DESCRIPTION]" src="http://cdn.theatlantic.com/newsroom/img/posts/9091756566_b0a417d26c_c.jpg" style="border: 0px; max-width: 100%;" /><figcaption style="color: #242b30; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px; width: auto;"><em>Deux hommes en pied</em> by Edgar Degas (<em>Renaud Camus/flickr</em>)</figcaption></figure>Jacob Hodes lies on the couch watching old reruns on television. It’s his roommate Sonny Singh’s turn to cook dinner tonight, and their Brooklyn apartment fills with the aroma of Indian food.<br />
As Singh bangs around in the kitchen, Hodes talks about a party he attended recently. “CUNY J-School parties are the worst, I don’t recognize anyone,” he says.<br />
Then he guffaws and glances back at Singh. “I don’t think I could ever miss you on the street, man.”<br />
Singh runs his fingers through his long beard. “Yeah, the turban makes it difficult to forget, huh? Unless, of course it was Sikh Day Parade.”<br />
There’s a knock on the door and Singh lets in a young woman.<br />
“Hey,” she says.<br />
Hodes pretends not to notice. He sinks deeper into the couch and keeps his eyes on the television. She walks into the kitchen, unaffected, and chats animatedly with Singh.<br />
Hodes’ other roommates come out and embrace the woman. “I think I’m supposed to know who she is,” Hodes whispers once she’s out of sight. “ But I don’t recognize her at all.”<br />
Prosopagnosia, or “face blindness,” the disorder that has plagued Hodes since he was a child, is the inability to recognize faces that should be familiar. Some patients’ impairment influences only the recognition of faces; others find their deficit extends to the recognition of other objects such as cars and animals.<br />
<aside class="callout" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(223, 223, 223); border-bottom-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(223, 223, 223); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px; float: left; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, arial, sans-serif; margin: 10px 30px 10px -70px; padding: 3px 0px 10px; width: 242px;"><h4 style="font-size: 17px; margin: 4px 0px 11px; padding: 0px;">Related Story</h4><div><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/06/the-mystery-of-the-second-skeleton/309305/" style="color: #00598c; text-decoration: none;"><img src="http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/newsroom/img/2013/05/14/0613-WEL-Zimmer_lede/mag-article-large.jpg?mmsn5m" style="border: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" width="242" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 1.4em; margin-bottom: 0.25em; margin-top: 5px;"><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/06/the-mystery-of-the-second-skeleton/309305/" style="color: #00598c; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">The Girl Who Turned to Bone</a></div></aside>While anyone can have trouble recognizing faces and names, prosopagnosics can’t even identify their own parents and relatives. They rely on non-facial information like hair color, gait, and tone of voice to distinguish people.<br />
Prosopagnosics often complain that they have trouble following movies or television shows, because they cannot recognize characters and keep up with the plot.<br />
Many also report problems with other aspects of face processing: They find it difficult to judge age or gender, recognize emotional expressions, or follow the direction of a person’s gaze. A substantial portion report navigational difficulties, because their sense of direction is impaired.<br />
Though researchers have sought cures, no therapies have demonstrated lasting improvements.<br />
“While there have been transient benefits, there has been nothing else that has made a real impact,” says Garga Chatterjee, currently pursuing doctoral research in prosopagnosia at Harvard.<br />
There are only about 100 documented cases of prosopagnosia in the worldwide medical literature. Yet scientists at the Prosopagnosia Research Centers at Dartmouth College, Harvard University and University College London are questioning whether the condition is actually that uncommon. “2.5 percent of the world’s population has the disorder. That’s one person in every 50. That is not rare at all,” Chatterjee says.<br />
In 2004, researchers at the Institute for Human Genetics in Germany gave 576 biology students a prosopagnosia screening questionnaire and found that nearly two percent reported face blindness symptoms. Scientists at the Prosopagnosia Center in 2006 also reported, after testing 1600 individuals, that about two percent of the general population may have prosopagnosia.<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">***</div>In 2007, Glenn Alperin was flying from Atlanta to Boston. “I was reading a newspaper when this man came up to me and shook my hand. He went down the aisle shaking hands with all of the passengers,” Alperin recalls.<br />
“I waited until he was at a safe distance and turned to the man sitting next to me and asked him who that was. The guy looked at me, horrified and said, ‘That was Jimmy Carter!’”<br />
Dressed in a fishing hat and an oversized green jacket, Alperin has just finished his session at a day treatment center in Cambridge, Massachusetts<br />
He makes his way to the subway station, carefully deliberating which train to take to Brookline, where he will tutor his first student of the day.<br />
“I don’t look at people until I am spoken to,” says Alperin, who’s had prosopagnosia since infancy. He provides an interesting analogy: “Most people take a picture with their brain and store and develop the film. I take the picture, but throw the film in the trash immediately.”<br />
<aside class="pullquote" style="border: 0px; color: #252525; float: left; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.35em; margin: 0px 0px 0px -70px; padding: 20px 25px 20px 0px !important; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; width: 250px;">"God forbid if something were to happen, he wouldn't even be able to identify the person."</aside>Alperin’s mother Peggy recalls the time they discovered the disorder. “I remember we went somewhere and my eldest son’s voice had just started to crack and Glenn was having trouble telling his brothers apart,” she says. She then did some research, and doctors confirmed that Alperin did in fact suffer from prosopagnosia.<br />
Peggy did her best to support Alperin after they diagnosed the disorder. She put alarms all over the house and if reporters ever visited his school, she wouldn’t allow his photograph to appear in the newspaper. She constantly fears that people may take advantage of his condition.<br />
“I can’t say anything now, because he is a full grown adult, but he tutors and goes to people’s houses he doesn’t even know. God forbid if something were to happen, he wouldn’t even be able to identify the person,” she says. “I am a gardener and it is only now, at the age of 63, that I have allowed my work to appear in shows. When Glenn was a child, I was so concerned for his safety, I never showed my work to anyone.”<br />
Researchers say prosopagnosia isn’t a unitary disorder, meaning that it is different for each patient. “Each prosopagnosic’s description of their experiences will be different,” Chatterjee says.<br />
Most patients develop strategies for tackling the problem. They may note carefully the clothes someone is wearing, ask relatives to always wear a particular distinctive item, or learn how to initiate and maintain conversations while they figure out whom they are talking to. But such strategies aren’t completely effective.<br />
Alperin’s mother would often test him as a child, hoping that would sharpen his mind. “My mother would keep changing her hairstyle and it would frustrate me because I couldn’t recognize her,” he says. “But now that both of us are older and she knows there’s no real cure for my disorder, she just ties her hair at the nape of her neck with one highlight running through her bun and that’s how I can identify her.”<br />
Alperin grew up on Boston’s North Shore with two elder brothers who did their best to help him out. But with their similar features and flaming red hair he still had trouble telling them apart. Yet, he says, briskly walking through Brookline, his family was incredibly supportive.<br />
“I would tell him, at his wedding, I would have to get the word ‘wife’ monogrammed on his wife’s dress, so he wouldn’t kiss the wrong girl,” Peggy recalls, laughing. “I had to prepare him to deal with the disorder and I wanted him to have a sense of humor about it.”<br />
His father, who died when Glenn was 16, spoke little. “He never mentioned anything about my disorder,” he says. “It was only later that I learned that he was worried I would forget him. But I could never do that.”<br />
Alperin rates the severity of his prosopagnosia a 9 out of 10. He finds it difficult even to recognize himself in a mirror. “I don’t like to take the time to see what I actually look like now, because I don’t care,” he says. At age 34, he is tall and lanky and keeps a long, red beard he constantly plays with.<br />
“That drives me crazy,” his mother says. She has been trying to get him to shave off his beard for a while now. “Although I get mad at him, I feel that the long beard is the only way he can recognize himself. His coordination is not great, so shaving too, must be trouble for him.”<br />
The stranger a person looks, the more Alperin is attracted to him or her.<br />
“I can recognize people that wear outrageous clothes or have different-colored hair a lot easier than those that blend into the crowd,” he says. “I like to believe I am attracted to people’s personalities. I can’t be attracted to the way they look.”<br />
While some prosopagnosics feel socially inept, Alperin tries to be outgoing. He stops to orders a cinnamon roll and strawberry flavored milk at the Dunkin Donuts in Brookline, which he frequents regularly. “They all know me here, but I don’t know them,” he jokes. When the cashier asks if he wants anything else, he grins, “Yes, a million dollars would be nice, thank you.” He’s fighting the most frustrating consequence of prosopagnosia: The tendency to drive someone into isolation.<br />
“It’s far easier for me to be alone than to try and navigate my way through a sea of faces I will never be able to comprehend,” he says. “Imagine walking into a place where everyone looks like identical twins. That’s what I have to go through at social gatherings.” Because prosopagnosics are prone to depression, Alperin attends a day treatment program, which helps him overcome his unhappiness. Wolfing down his cinnamon rolls, he describes his treatment at the center.<br />
“The sessions help participants through mental health issues and provide survival techniques. It is helpful, because everyone that attends shares the problems they have together.”<br />
Social anxiety disorders and depression can ensue for prosopagnosics, because the disorder has such an impact on social groups and the patient’s interaction with society.<br />
“The Internet is probably the best thing that happened to prosopagnosics,” Alperin says. “You can communicate with someone, build relationships, and maintain them without ever having to see their face or recognize them.”<br />
Yet, lack of direct social interaction also led him down a bad path.<br />
“I developed an online gambling problem when I was in college,” he says. “I specifically remember a telephone conversation with my mother when I was [in college] about a telephone bill which was off the wall, which effectively launched my gambling problem. It is still a problem, I don’t know if I will ever get over it.”<br />
<aside class="pullquote" style="border: 0px; color: #252525; float: left; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.35em; margin: 0px 0px 0px -70px; padding: 20px 25px 20px 0px !important; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; width: 250px;">"I am attentive all the time, but I still get confused."</aside>Alperin recognizes that gambling is dangerous. “Intellectually I know it does me far more harm than good, but addictions are rarely, if ever about applying logic.”<br />
The need for social interaction is what pushed him to become a tutor. “It’s difficult to interact with someone on a one on one basis and that’s why I wanted to pose that challenge to myself,” he says.<br />
Walking through residential Brookline, Alperin practices something he learned from Nancy Mindick’s book, <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Facial-Recognition-Difficulties-Children/dp/1849058024" style="color: #00598c; text-decoration: none;">Understanding Facial Recognition Difficulties in Children</a>. </em>He walks with his head down, and when he does look up, he avoids eye contact with passers by. “Because I have such a hard time picking up on non-verbal communication, I appear distracted.” He changes his expression and brings a distant look into his eyes. “This way, if someone wants to speak to me, they have to make the effort to approach me.”<br />
“I am attentive all the time, but I still get confused,” he says, walking towards his student’s house. He pauses for a moment “I don’t know whether it’s this house, or the one next to it.” He walks up to one, but quickly changes his mind and rings the bell next door.<br />
Alperin doesn’t feel awkward talking about his disorder with people he’s just met, he says. It’s not like he could hide it anyway. “Prosopagnosia is something that affects my interaction and my life on a daily basis, so I’m rather unabashed about my condition,” he says.<br />
Alperin has been tutoring 14-year-old Avi Ber in math for the past three months and as a coach, he appears patient and gentle.<br />
“Are you confident?” he asks when she tells him about an upcoming math project.<br />
“Yeah, I think,” she says hesitatingly.<br />
He glances at her briefly and smiles. “Not as confident as it sounds.”<br />
Avi, a sophomore at Brookline High, says Alperin’s tutoring has helped her perform better. “He makes things very easy to understand,” she says. Alperin says his disorder has not harmed the student-tutor relationship. “I didn’t know what it was,” Avi says. “So I guess that’s another new thing I learned.”<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">***</div>Though researchers can trace face recognition problems after brain injury as far back as the 19th century, prosopagnosia was first identified as a separate neuropsychological problem by German neurologist Joachim Bodamer in 1947. While studying the brain injuries of World War II veterans, he came across two prosopagnosics.<br />
One was unable to combine features to see a whole face; the other couldn’t recognize facial expressions. Though Bodamer was investigating a condition resulting from acute brain damage, contemporary researchers have found that a congenital or developmental type also exists: some patients are born with prosopagnosia.<br />
Glenn Alperin started showing face recognition problems after a fall from his crib at 16 months. “I didn’t realize it so much when I was a child, but I was constantly confused,” he says.<br />
Acquired prosopagnosia, when the patient suffers brain damage from an injury or stroke is better known because patients have a clear sense of their impairment and know what they were like before they suffered the brain injury. In developmental prosopagnosia, which is genetic, the impairment is less apparent to the patient.<br />
“I feel like Glenn not knowing what life was like without the disorder is a blessing and a curse,” Alperin’s mother says. “He would also be scared to cure it, because he doesn’t know what life is like without it.”<br />
Deficits commonly associated with prosopagnosia include loss of color vision and the inability to find one’s way about. When the Alperins took skiing trips as a family, Glenn couldn’t find his way from the parking lot to the lodge.<br />
“But, when he was skiing, he made his way through the mountains with no trouble at all. I realized that it was the snow. All that white took away all that noise in his head,” says Peggy. Similarly, Peggy says Alperin prefers the night, because it is quieter and navigation becomes easier for him. “I wish someone [would invent] glasses for Glenn, where he could see the world in black and white. It would make his life a lot easier,” she says.<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">***</div>“It’s not that I don’t know everyone. The problem is I don’t know whom I know,” says Hodes, talking about the party he went to recently. “I was looking for the host and she causes me trouble,” he says. “She keeps changing her hairstyle.”<br />
He glanced around the room for a while before the hostess found him. He got himself a drink and started talking to a photographer sitting next to him.<br />
“Did you also go to CUNY?” Hodes asks.<br />
“Yeah, yeah I did,” the man replied.<br />
Hodes had struck gold. “Wait a minute, you teach there now don’t you?” he asked eagerly.<br />
“Yeah.”<br />
“You teach the photo class, you’re like an assistant? You taught my class,” Hodes said.<br />
“We had many interactions and I ought to have known him, but thankfully he didn’t recognize me,” Hodes says later.<br />
A recent CUNY journalism graduate, he’s become a prosopagnosia celebrity since appearing on <em><a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7417242n" style="color: #00598c; text-decoration: none;">60 Minutes</a></em> in August 2012.<br />
Hodes doesn’t think it necessary to tell people about his disorder right away. “It would appear like I was self absorbed,” he says.<br />
Now most of his classmates and professors are aware of his face blindness—a mixed blessing, since people started asking him jokingly, “Do you recognize me?”<br />
Though he has lived with prosopagnosia since birth, Hodes wasn’t diagnosed until he was 19, when he was a student at Swarthmore College. His parents were going through a divorce, so he took advantage of the school’s free therapy. In addition to talking about his family, he told the counselor about his trouble recognizing people. “That’s when they told me that I may be suffering from the disorder,” he says.<br />
He went home that night and read up on prosopagnosia. Bill Choisser who suffered from it for years, was sharing his experiences on a <a href="http://www.choisser.com/bill/" style="color: #00598c; text-decoration: none;">blog</a>. “It was like every movie cliché happened,” Hodes recalls. “I was reading Bill’s work and crying because years of repressed experiences finally made sense.”<br />
He signed up for testing in Boston at the Prosopagnosia Research Center. A functional MRI showed nothing wrong with his brain, yet he couldn’t recognize faces on tests. “I can recognize horses, houses or even guns, but when it comes to faces, nothing,” he says.<br />
When he broke the news to his mother, she didn’t seem surprised; she had noticed the problem when he was a child.<br />
“I was like, ‘Mom, what the hell? Why didn’t you ever point it out?’” he says. “I remember I was always confused as a kid because all of us on the soccer team had that same stupid buzz cut and wore that same uniform three times a week.”<br />
Unlike Alperin, who thinks his prosopagnosia results from a fall, Hodes suffers from congenital prosopagnosia, which appears to run in families and probably results from a genetic mutation or deletion.<br />
“My dad is in his 50s and when I told him about the disorder, we found out he suffers from prosopagnosia as well. A lifetime of experiences suddenly made sense. I can imaging how difficult it must have been for him, because he used be a labor organizer,” Hodes says.<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">***</div>It’s a Sunday evening and it’s Hodes’s turn to cook dinner at home. His roommate Heidi Chua Schwa is in the kitchen making tea.<br />
<aside class="pullquote" style="border: 0px; color: #252525; float: left; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.35em; margin: 0px 0px 0px -70px; padding: 20px 25px 20px 0px !important; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; width: 250px;">"Facebook actually really helps a lot, because I can see what the person looks like if I haven't met them in a few months."</aside>Hodes has lived in his Brooklyn apartment for five years. Because he doesn’t like to talk about his condition, he initially confused his roommates when he didn’t acknowledge them.<br />
“He completely ignored me on the street one day and I was like ‘what?’” says Schwa, laughing.<br />
Hodes smiles shyly. “Yeah, but then I told you about it and it was okay.”<br />
He believes he needs to meet someone at least 30 times before he can recognize him or her. Social networking, however, is helping him cope. “Facebook actually really helps a lot, because I can see what the person looks like if I haven’t met them in a few months.”<br />
Doctors and researchers say there’s no cure for the disorder, but they’ve made progress in identifying the areas of the brain that could be responsible for face blindness. In October 2012, doctors at Stanford performed a clinical procedure on a patient with electrodes temporarily implanted in his brain. They were able to find two nerve clusters that were critical for face perception. “We stimulated the region of the brain responsible for seizures,” says Josef Parvizi, assistant professor of neurology at Stanford. “It caused the patient’s vision of faces to distort, leaving the perception of inanimate objects and other body parts the same.”<br />
While the study doesn’t provide any options for treatment, it helps distinguish the part of the brain responsible for face recognition. “I wouldn’t call it groundbreaking, but it is important because causelogy has been established for prosopagnosia, which other studies have not been able to do,” Parvizi says. Connecticut Muffin at Lafayette and Fulton in Brooklyn is one of Hodes’ regular haunts. He sits with one leg propped against the armrest of the chair, sipping chai.<br />
“I like traveling,” he says. “I went to Sri Lanka to visit this girl I was dating, it was really beautiful.”<br />
Does it ever scare him, traveling and maintaining a relationship given his disorder? He smiles “No, it doesn’t. But this girl that I was dating, she kept changing her hairstyle and it drove me nuts. It was like waking up with a different person every day.”<br />
It does cause him problems as a journalist sometimes, though. He describes an interview he did while reporting on factory workers in the Bronx. “I’m taking really detailed notes and everything—suddenly his brother comes over. I look at them, same features, same hair and I think, ‘I’m totally screwed.’”<br />
When he returned for a follow-up interview he asked the family members their names again, checking them against his notes. If he doesn’t recognize a source, he asks for the spelling of her name.<br />
Like other prosopagnosics, Hodes complains that following the plot of a movie or television show is difficult. He watched <em>Amour </em>recently and didn’t find it difficult to follow because there were so few characters. But back on his favorite spot on the couch, James Cameron’s <em>Avatar </em>confounds him within the first two minutes when an actor morphs into a cartoonish character.<br />
“Wait, is this the same guy that was looking at the dead body?” he asks baffled. He pauses and rewinds, starting the movie over three times.<br />
He throws his hands in the air, exasperated, “How can you tell if he was the same guy in the wheelchair? Can you tell them apart? Man, you have some superpower.”</div></article><div class="article-comment-count" style="background-color: white; clear: both; font-family: 'Arial Black', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; height: 37px; line-height: 18.84375px; margin-top: 18px; overflow: hidden;"><a class="comment-count-link" data-disqus-identifier="mt279898" href="http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/09/living-with-face-blindness/279898/#disqus_thread" style="background-color: #00b0dd; background-image: url(http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/front/images/article/article-icons.png); background-position: 100% -150px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: white; float: left; height: 37px; padding-right: 30px; text-decoration: none;" title="Join the Conversation"></a></div>dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15338839345653126512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2384372176412065244.post-40080085622203430512012-07-19T20:08:00.002-05:002012-07-19T20:28:45.818-05:00University of Wisconsin Prosopagnosia Study.<br />
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<dt class="comment-author " id="c4537261001073933284" style="background-color: #e4ecf5; font-family: Trebuchet, 'Trebuchet MS', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;"><i>This was in the comment section of the last post, but I am reposting it to make sure everyone sees it. A Prosopagnosic study being conducted, in need of participants. Time to do your part. It helps us all to know more about our interactions with others.</i></dt>
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Hello, my name is Trish Devine, and I am a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I study social perception, and I am conducting a study with people who have prosopagnosia, examining how different social categories are perceived via the face versus other cues. The study only takes about 15 minutes. Because prosopagnosia is such a rare condition, we need as much help as we can get finding people to be in our study. If you wouldn’t mind posting a link to our experiment (below) on your blog, we would really appreciate it.<br />
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People with prosopagnosia can provide a unique and essential perspective, granting them the ability to contribute greatly to our understanding of social perception. If you have any questions about the study or anything else, feel free to email me at iplab@psych.wisc.edu.<br />
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Link:<br />
https://sites.google.com/site/wisconsinsocialpsych/prosopagnosia-study.com<a href="https://sites.google.com/site/wisconsinsocialpsych/prosopagnosia-study">https://sites.google.com/site/wisconsinsocialpsych/prosopagnosia-study</a><br />
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Thank you!<br />
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Trish Devine<br />
Department of Psychology<br />
University of Wisconsin – Madison<br />
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This research is being conducted by researchers at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, and has been reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board. If you have any questions or comments, you can reply to this email, contact the principle investigator of the Interpersonal Perceptions Lab at iplab@psych.wisc.edu.</div>
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</dd>dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15338839345653126512noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2384372176412065244.post-9585290069328296022012-06-19T16:49:00.001-05:002012-06-19T17:04:35.598-05:00People I Can't Tell Apart part 2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white;">Can you tell them apart now? I couldn't except for one thing - the flag. Details other than the face, some of our best coping mechanisms.</span>dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15338839345653126512noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2384372176412065244.post-86067764324137461942012-06-19T16:41:00.001-05:002012-06-19T16:59:46.759-05:00People I Confuse For One Another<div class="mobile-photo">
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There are many pairs (or sometimes more than two) of people who I confuse with each other. Much of the time, its a similar hairstyle, hairline, or facial hair arrangement. Here is the first installment of People I Can't Tell Apart. <span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;">When I see one of them speaking on television with the sound turned down, I have no idea which one it is, and often mistake one for the other.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; text-align: center;">If Oprah is there, however, I know.</span><br />
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Steadman Graham - partner of Oprah Winfrey<br />
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Eric Holder - U.S. Attorney General<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XIHhypjt1eI/T-DyH6z__FI/AAAAAAAAPd4/b2FvWLtgo9E/s1600/photo%2B2-711550.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5755866541639859282" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XIHhypjt1eI/T-DyH6z__FI/AAAAAAAAPd4/b2FvWLtgo9E/s400/photo%2B2-711550.JPG" /></a></div>dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15338839345653126512noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2384372176412065244.post-33942384949577975772012-06-18T17:06:00.001-05:002012-06-18T17:06:17.707-05:00We need a simple test for prosopagnosia -- Fine 342 -- bmj.com<i>This is one of my favorite First person accounts of life with Prosopagnosia. I relish its straightforwardness. It was published in the British Journal of Medicine by a doctor willing to tell his story.</i><br />
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<a href="http://www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.d1736.full?keytype=ref&ijkey=qA8pESRN8dJN3wl">We need a simple test for prosopagnosia -- Fine 342 -- bmj.com</a>: "* Personal View<br />
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We need a simple test for prosopagnosia<br />
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1. David R Fine, consultant gastroenterologist, Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust<br />
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1. davidrfine@gmail.com<br />
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He is a distinguished colleague and I am proud we are on first name terms: had I met him at the conference rather than the airport I would not have walked past. I was embarrassed, so my wife explained my problem, and his reply was unusual: “You must write a review for the BMJ so that others can understand your problem and benefit from your experience. Accounts of disability and how people cope are uplifting and help even those not afflicted.”<br />
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I have severe inherited (developmental) prosopagnosia, or face blindness. The term prosopagnosia was coined in 1947, but it has been widely recognised outside the context of brain injury only in the past decade. Its purest form is limited to facial recognition, but I also have problems with inanimate and animate objects and in interpreting facial signs of emotion and sex. I often fail to recognise my children or even my wife.<br />
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Prosopagnosia has shaped my life. At every stage I have failed to acknowledge friends and, more distressingly, those in authority. At school I would get lines for not raising my cap to a teacher or be shouted at (and worse) for ignoring a classmate. As a young man I ignored girls whom I had met the night before—not a good mating strategy. As a houseman I knew the patients by their beds; if the nurses moved them I would present the wrong case on the round. I find networking all but impossible, and social situations, from parties to conferences, may cause acute anxiety. Ward parties are the worst because I know other staff members by their uniforms and badges; in party clothes, with different hairstyles, they are strangers to me.<br />
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Even worse than ignoring someone you know is recognising someone you don’t. Depending on the circumstances this can be interpreted as rude, deranged, or predatory. I have long learnt to smile politely at people who smile at me but to let them make the first moves in conversation.<br />
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How do I function personally and professionally? A look at my life reveals strategies. I have a limited number of friends, many of whom are physically distinctive: I suspect that is because I was able to recognise them at an early stage, allowing acquaintance to develop into friendship. I work in a hospital, so fellow workers are labelled and patients either come to me by appointment with notes, or are in a specific and allotted place. I memorise hair, jewellery, and favourite clothes. I recognise gaits, tics, and voices. The fashion for tattoos and piercings can help, but they are often hidden in daily encounters. Above all I rely on context: a person of a certain type in our corridor is my colleague—but in the supermarket is probably a stranger. Professionally I have limited myself to a small subspecialty, with a couple of hundred colleagues worldwide.<br />
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Being diagnosed helped. A friend used the term prosopagnosia in 1996, but only in 2005, when I found Brad Duchaine, then at the institute of cognitive neuroscience at University College London, did I realise how disabled I am. The news that I am “in the bottom 15%” sounded all right, until I realised that Duchaine was referring to the affected population rather than the general population (I’m eight standard deviations away from the mean). I then became a bore, telling everybody about it. Now I try to tell people on first acquaintance and only reinforce it if they say, “I’ve got that too”—most sufferers forget names but recognise friends and family without difficulty. Many people now reintroduce themselves when we meet. One exposes her tattoo, normally only visible in a low cut dress, which raises eyebrows.<br />
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Early on I would tell people how I recognised them, until my wife, who has an astonishing memory for faces, cautioned that inevitably I identified their worst features. Now I tell people who are difficult to remember that this is a compliment, because good looks are symmetrical (would that I had known that line as a single man). I have stopped bluffing and waiting for clues to emerge and consequently no longer finish protracted conversations ignorant of my counterpart’s identity.<br />
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I have met a few fellow sufferers, including a professor of psychology and an emergency department consultant; both are well adapted but possibly there are others less well adapted whose lives have been scarred more deeply. I have done well enough in life, but I believe that I would have achieved more professionally had I been better able to network. My hope is for a simple test to identify prosopagnosia in childhood (as for colour blindness), so that the next generation of sufferers grows up in a society that understands and recognises our disability. Meanwhile, if you think you may be affected you can check your facial recognition ability at www.faceblind.org.<br />
<br />dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15338839345653126512noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2384372176412065244.post-60621717433027996782012-06-16T17:47:00.001-05:002012-06-19T17:07:56.811-05:00Prosopagnosia On 60 Minutes60 minutes 18 March 2012 [<a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50121783n&tag=contentMain;contentAux">video clip, Two-part segment on prosopagnosia - Part 1</a>]<br />
60 minutes 18 March 2012 [<a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50121784n&tag=contentMain;contentAux">video clip, Two-part segment on prosopagnosia - Part 2</a>]<br />
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Above are the links to a recent story about Prosopagnosia that aired in the USA on CBS news program 60 Minutes.<br />
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From my perspective, this is what a very informative and realistic representation of Prosopagnosia, and this seemed to be the consensus of the online support group I take part in. One of the subjects of the story belongs to this same support group, and I am so appreciative that she was willing to devote her time and candor to this project.<br />
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Please follow the links above to watch both parts. It's worth your time if you are interested in learning more about Prosopagnosia. I can honestly say I would not have changed anything in this story. Well done Leslie Stahl and the 60 Minutes crew.<br />
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- Posted from somewhere near my dogdorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15338839345653126512noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2384372176412065244.post-91994195830571705782012-06-15T16:55:00.000-05:002012-06-16T18:50:13.885-05:00Somewhere Closer To NormalI just returned home from what would be an uneventful trip for most, on the subway to Soho (in Manhattan) and back. For me it was a glimpse into the life of a person without Prosoganosia (PA) and Topographical Disorientation (TD).<br />
I have a service dog named Reykjavik, who for the last few years has been helping me cope with these two neurological disorders. Until recently, I had not been utilizing the full extent of his capabilities, because I was uncomfortable letting others know I had these disabilities. I did not tell anyone, and I never would have allowed Reykjavik to be thought of as a service dog, let alone wear any indication of such.<br />
Now that I have decided to "come out" about all this, and embrace the use of a service dog, my world is changing dramatically. Today, Reykjavik and I took our second trip on the subway, from our home in Dumbo, into Manhattan. Riding the subway is a new skill for him, which he is learning rapidly. We are doing this once a week, for appointments and such.<br />
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Today we went with our friend N, to visit her physical therapist in Soho. This is a place where I have gone (always alone) for 12-20 visits over a period of a couple months, for the last 2-3 years for my own physical therapy. It's a place I got lost in continually - a maze of twists and turns on each floor, common in these old buildings on Broadway. We dropped N off, and as soon we were out the door of the PT's office, Reykjavik without pause led us directly back to the correct elevator bank (N told me today that there was more than one. I did not realize this before today because no pathway ever looks familiar to me. I just assumed I had always been coming in the same way, but had not.) There was not one wrong turn or backtrack made, as per my usual route.<br />
<a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-txaWIRVSSpk/T90a83QHr4I/AAAAAAAAOvc/tl7gFnlIyoI/s640/blogger-image-1402407247.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-txaWIRVSSpk/T90a83QHr4I/AAAAAAAAOvc/tl7gFnlIyoI/s640/blogger-image-1402407247.jpg" /></a>We took the elevator down to the street(see picture of big dog in small elevator), exited the building and after some consideration on my part, turned right to enter a building 2-3 doors down where our good friend TBG had recently started working. I had promised her a visit. She had told me she worked on the 12th floor, so without looking for an office number we headed up in the elevator. We exited on the 12th floor, and I decided instead of texting her for suite number, I would just ask Reykjavik to find her. She is his godmother, so he knows her scent very well. This building was even more maze - like than the last, because the floor was bigger. Reykjavik started off one way, lost the scent, then turned around and headed back and right to her office. Once inside the big open room, which normally would have been a nightmare for me, with it's many desks and similar looking people, I just waited for him to find her, her to find him<br />
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(see picture of Reykjavik posing with a Flavorpill employee). So much less stress than normal. Once again when we left, he returned right to the elevator to head down. <br />
<a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-B3KchdR9yQk/T90a8tt2jVI/AAAAAAAAOvU/wTyTO6fN5q4/s640/blogger-image-374648748.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-B3KchdR9yQk/T90a8tt2jVI/AAAAAAAAOvU/wTyTO6fN5q4/s640/blogger-image-374648748.jpg" /></a>We walked to a shop not far away, with me using my phone's gps and google maps for directions (to a store I had been to numerous times before). When we left there, I asked him to "take me back", and he took me right to the same subway station we had exited upon our arrival, though via a slightly different route, instead of precisely retracing our steps.<br />
We waited for N to finish her appointment, then went down in the station to catch the subway back to DUMBO.<br />
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And just like that, we were home. We had gone to visit two different offices, with no premapping, and almost no wrong turns, no wandering in the wrong hallway, no asking people for directions, most of all, no stress about getting lost or not recognizing someone! It was so freeing not to have to concentrate on every step and turn, to have a measure of ease and assurity while moving about with the dog to correct, lead, or return me. To be fair, in the beginning of the trip, we had N to lead us to the physical therapy office. What Reykjavik does best is "take me back" or "take me home". And that is all he did today. And these were all small difficulties that he aided me on. Yet to me, it's a glimpse into the life of a NT, or neurotypical person. <br />
- Posted from somewhere near my dog<br />
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Location:<a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Dumbo/Manhattan&z=10">Dumbo/Manhattan</a></div>dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15338839345653126512noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2384372176412065244.post-41448070171433185192012-06-14T14:47:00.001-05:002012-06-14T14:52:14.956-05:00When I Least Expect ItI took my dog out the other day for an afternoon walk. We went out the door and down the street, then turned left and headed toward our favorite park. As we came to the first intersection, I stopped to look for cars, and also took note of people approaching me from each direction, and whether they were attached to dogs or not. <br /><br />Just as I had finished checking everything out and headed across the street, a person a few feet away who I had noticed walking toward me, yelled my name and waved. It was our good friend N, on her way to the subway. I had looked right at her, and visually passed her by. Not unusual for me to not recognize someone, except, she was just a few yards from the door to her building, erasing one of my excuses, seeing some one out of context. Not only was it not out of context, but it was approximately where I meet her almost very morning, (this was afternoon) including this one, to walk our Great Danes together. <br /><br />Now of all the people I expect to "recognize" N is one of those at the top of the list. She has a cool, distinctive style, and springy brunette coils of curls. This makes it 10 times more embarrassing for me not to recognize her. It creates the most awkward moment where I want to either profusely apologize or blend into the concrete of the sidewalk. Thankfully, N is very gracious and knows my problems probably better than most, so she just passes right over it. This is the blessing that comes from being open with people about Prosopagnosia.<br /><br />In my defense, she did not have her Great Dane with her . . .<br /><a href='https://picasaweb.google.com/doriville/AlexanderReykjavikGreatDane?authkey=Gv1sRgCOC-tfiXovCWxwE#5753981521201706386'><img src='https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-OQPdAHsk1Q0/T9o_tSdjtZI/AAAAAAAAOuY/4hbVIKhbTy0/s288/0.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a><br />- Posted from somewhere near my dog<br /><br />dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15338839345653126512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2384372176412065244.post-5946604690242439422012-01-02T23:02:00.002-05:002012-06-19T17:09:13.648-05:00Faceless: NYTimes Video about ProsopagnosiaLink to New York Times Video about Prosopagnosia and Me<br />
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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/27/health/views/face-and-voice-recognition-may-be-linked-in-the-brain-research-suggests.html?pagewanted=2&_r=3&hpw<br />
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Its an inside look into the life of someone with Prosopagnosia (me), created by Almudena Toral. I am pretty happy with how it turned out. Its all very true for me. I hope this gives people a little insight into the disorder.dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15338839345653126512noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2384372176412065244.post-62416036348132113032012-01-02T22:22:00.002-05:002012-06-19T17:08:40.102-05:00<br />
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Transcript of recent New York Times featuring James Cooke (whom I have never met) and I.</div>
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December 26, 2011<br />
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<nyt_headline type=" " version="1.0"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/27/health/views/face-and-voice-recognition-may-be-linked-in-the-brain-research-suggests.html?ref=prosopagnosiabraindisorder">Have We Met? Tracing Face Blindness to Its Roots</a></nyt_headline></h1>
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By KAREN BARROW</h6>
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Close your eyes. Picture your closest friend. Maybe you see her blue eyes, long nose, brown hair. Perhaps even her smile.</div>
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If you saw her walking down the street it would match your imagined vision. But what if you saw nothing at all?</div>
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James Cooke, 66, of Islip, N.Y., can’t recognize other people. When he meets someone on the street, he offers a generic “hello” because he can’t be sure if he’s ever met that person before. “I see eyes, nose, cheekbones, but no face,” he said. “I’ve even passed by my son and daughter without recognizing them.”</div>
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He is not the only one. Those with <a class="meta-classifier" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/prosopagnosia_brain_disorder/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" style="color: #666699; text-decoration: none;" title="Recent and archival health news about prosopagnosia (brain disorder).">prosopagnosia</a>, also known as face <a class="meta-classifier" href="http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/symptoms/blindness/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier" style="color: #666699; text-decoration: none;" title="In-depth reference and news articles about Blindness.">blindness</a>, can see perfectly well, but their brains are unable to piece together the information needed to understand that a collection of features represents an individual’s face. The condition is a neurological mystery, but new research has shed light on this strange malady.</div>
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One of the keys to understanding face recognition, it seems, is understanding how the brain comes to recognize voices. Some scientists had believed that faces and voices, the two main ways people recognize one another, were processed separately by the brain. Indeed, a condition parallel to prosopagnosia, called phonagnosia, similarly leaves a person unable to distinguish a familiar voice from an unfamiliar one.</div>
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But by testing for these two conditions simultaneously, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Germany recently found evidence that face and voice recognition may be linked in a novel person-recognition system.</div>
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Using <a class="meta-classifier" href="http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/test/mri/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier" style="color: #666699; text-decoration: none;" title="In-depth reference and news articles about MRI.">M.R.I.</a>, the scientists looked at the brain activity of 19 healthy volunteers as they were led through tasks that tested their ability to recognize both faces and voices. The researchers found that regions of the brain already associated with facial recognition, like the fusiform face area in the occipital lobe, are directly linked to regions responsible for voice recognition, mostly in the temporal lobe.</div>
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This research helps explain why a person with prosopagnosia may still have difficulty determining who a person is even after she has begun to speak. “People with prosopagnosia don’t have the benefit of learning voices with faces,” said Katharina von Kriegstein, author of <a href="http://www.jneurosci.org/content/31/36/12906.abstract?sid=2704774c-0cbd-4342-9b75-639b388b99f9" style="color: #666699; text-decoration: none;" title="Read the abstract.">the study</a>, which was published in September in The Journal of Neuroscience.</div>
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The challenge for scientists is to find out where this system breaks down. Are these connections in the brain missing entirely, or are people unable to recognize faces and voices simply unable to use these links in some way?</div>
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It is unclear how many people have these conditions. Many don’t even realize they have problems with facial or voice recognition. While some develop these difficulties after a <a class="meta-classifier" href="http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/injury/head-injury/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier" style="color: #666699; text-decoration: none;" title="In-depth reference and news articles about Head injury.">brain injury</a> or trauma, others develop it in childhood.</div>
<div style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em;">
For Mr. Cooke, who lives with his two grown children, face blindness first surfaced after <a class="meta-classifier" href="http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/surgery/brain-surgery/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier" style="color: #666699; text-decoration: none;" title="In-depth reference and news articles about Brain surgery.">brain surgery</a> for an unrelated condition. Three physicians stood by his bed in the hospital the day after surgery to ask how he was feeling. Mr. Cooke didn’t think he had met the doctors before, so he gave some generic responses. After the doctors left, Mr. Cooke’s mother came in to find out what his surgeon had to say.</div>
<div style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em;">
Mr. Cooke was shocked to discover he had just been speaking with his own doctor. “I didn’t recognize that I didn’t recognize him,” he said.</div>
<div style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em;">
He went home, and the face blindness continued. Months later, he still couldn’t recognize his son, let alone his son’s friends when they visited. The cashiers at the grocery store had turned into strangers. Neighbors’ faces were completely foreign.</div>
<div style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em;">
He went from neurologist to neurologist until one recognized that he had prosopagnosia, most likely a side effect of his surgery.</div>
<div style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em;">
While there is no treatment or cure for Mr. Cooke, figuring out why he was no longer able to recognize his own children was a relief. “It was good to hear that what I was experiencing was real and not in my imagination,” he said.</div>
<div style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em;">
Dori Frame, 51, of Brooklyn, is less certain about the cause of her face blindness, as she doesn’t remember having difficulty recalling faces as a child. She did suffer a severe head injury at age 16 while horseback riding, but it is unclear whether that caused her prosopagnosia as an adult.</div>
<div style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em;">
“My eyes see just fine,” said Ms. Frame. “But when I look away, I can’t recall the picture in my mind.”</div>
<div style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em;">
Ms. Frame didn’t realize she had a problem until she learned about prosopagnosia in a <a class="meta-classifier" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/psychology_and_psychologists/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" style="color: #666699; text-decoration: none;" title="Recent and archival health news about psychology.">psychology</a> class. “It’s like colorblindness,” she said. “You don’t realize you see colors differently than anyone else until someone points it out to you.”</div>
<div style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em;">
Brad Duchaine, who researches face blindness at Dartmouth, says that after giving talks about prosopagnosia, he is often approached by audience members who have just realized that their difficulty keeping movie characters straight or identifying co-workers on the street may be more than just a quirk. “I think there’s a lot of people who have difficulty and just don’t know it,” he said.</div>
<div style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em;">
With no treatments, those with face blindness have to rely on simple coping strategies. “They use all those other cues that everyone else uses, just to a greater degree,” Dr. Duchaine said.</div>
<div style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em;">
For example, Ms. Frame can recall a person’s hairstyle and body type and how they move. “But when my husband gets a haircut, it takes me a while to reconcile that,” she said.</div>
<div style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em;">
Mr. Cooke has his own strategies. He knows that if he sees a tall, blond man in his kitchen, it’s most likely his son. A tall, blonde woman cleaning the house is probably his daughter. “However, I have mistaken my kids’ friends for them,” he said.</div>
<div style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em;">
The condition has unexpected social consequences. How do you explain to everyone you meet that you may not recognize them later? “I live in fear of making people feel unimportant by not recognizing them,” Ms. Frame said.</div>
<div style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em;">
Mr. Cooke was once on a date with a brunette who knew about his condition, he said, when he excused himself to use the restroom. Returning, he saw a pretty, brown-haired woman sitting alone, so he slipped into the chair across from hers. “My date came running across the restaurant to tell me I was at the wrong table,” he said.</div>
<div style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1em;">
Ms. Frame isn’t as open about her face blindness. Whenever she is meeting someone, she arrives early, so her friend has to find her. Still, even with prosopagnosia often at the forefront of her mind, Ms. Frame often forgets her difficulties. “It still seems bizarre to me,” she said. “You mistake yourself for someone else in the mirror, and you feel so silly when you realize it’s you.”<br />
<br />
<i>My Editorial Comment - for the record, I am great at voice recognition, and Mr. Cooke may be as well, I don't know. The NYTimes editor rolled these two concepts in together in this article, but I have not met many Prosopagnosics that do not recognize people by voice, either as a primary or secondary coping strategy. For myself, it is the main way I recognize the people that I am quite familiar with.</i></div>
<nyt_correction_bottom></nyt_correction_bottom><br />
<div class="articleCorrection" style="margin-bottom: 2.8em;">
</div>
<nyt_update_bottom></nyt_update_bottom></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;"></span>dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15338839345653126512noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2384372176412065244.post-40726303901826856562011-12-27T18:50:00.001-05:002012-01-02T22:38:52.116-05:00I Am ProsopagnosicPublic becomes personal. Since I have decided to allow a photojournalist to print my story in the New York Times, I have decided this is a good time to go public with at least one of my disorders, Prosopagnosia. Here is the note I sent to my friends and acquaintances, directing them to the story, and more importantly, the video on the NYTimes web site. Its like sitting at the top of the first and tallest roller coaster ride hill, poised to pour downward into what you know will be series of ups and downs. Its freeing and scry to tlk about this. Here we go . . .<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>Link at bottom of page. Check out the video especially. My dog and boy</i><br />
<i> are in it.</i><br />
<i><br /></i><br />
<i> For those of you that do not already know, here it is in the NYTimes</i><br />
<i> today, Tuesday. For as long as I have known you, I have had</i><br />
<i> Prosopagnosia and Topographical Agnosia, or Topographic Disorientation</i><br />
<i>(you'll have to look that up, too much too explain). This may explain</i><br />
<i> some awkward situations during our interactions, but most likely not.</i><br />
<i> I have spent most of my life lying and denying to hide these deficits.</i><br />
<i>My online support group (we would never meet face-to-face in a</i><br />
<i> physical support group) has convinced me that all Prosopagnosic's</i><br />
<i>lives would be easier if more people knew about it. I have always been</i><br />
<i>reluctant to bring it up, preferring to make excuses and pretend I</i><br />
<i> know people.</i><br />
<i><br /></i><br />
<i> I do have very good coping skills, so I can often figure people out.</i><br />
<i> Contrary to the article in nytimes linked to my article, I have</i><br />
<i>extremely good voice recognition skills. I also use physical stature,</i><br />
<i>body movements, gait, etc. to identify people. I have had a lot of</i><br />
<i> practice, and if all else fails, I just act like I know you, and fake</i><br />
<i>my way though the conversation.</i><br />
<i><br /></i><br />
<i> The preferable situation is that I "come out" in this fashion, tell</i><br />
<i>people my problem, and they identify themselves when they see the</i><br />
<i>blank look on my face. You have to look quick though:)</i><br />
<i><br /></i><br />
<i>For those of you who have trouble remembering names, you are in good</i><br />
<i>company. 80% of Americans report trouble remembering names. I, on the</i><br />
<i> other hand, am great at it - a coping skill I guess. The researchers</i><br />
<i> estimate 2% of the population have Prosopagnosia. I could go on and on</i><br />
<i>about this, but there is more info links and articles on my blog</i><br />
<i> <a href="http://www.nofacelikehome.com/">www.NoFaceLikeHome.com</a></i><br />
<i><br /></i><br />
<i> Please feel free to forward this link to others. The more people that</i><br />
<i> know about this, the better. Also, feel free to ask all the questions</i><br />
<i> you want. It is hard for me to bring up this subject, but I could talk</i><br />
<i> all day about it to interested people. It is fascinating and strange,</i><br />
<i> even to me, even after all these years.</i><br />
<i><br /></i><br />
<i> Thanks!</i><br />
<i> Dori</i><br />
<i><br /></i><br />
<i> Here's the nytimes link:</i><br />
<i> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/27/health/views/face-and-voice-recognition-may-be-linked-in-the-brain-research-suggests.html?_r=1&hpw">http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/27/health/views/face-and-voice-recognition-may-be-linked-in-the-brain-research-suggests.html?_r=1&hpw</a></i><br />
<i><br /></i><br />
<i> The video link is on the same page, and is more in depth on me and</i><br />
<i> living with Prosopagnosia or PA as we say.</i>dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15338839345653126512noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2384372176412065244.post-6768470321426197872011-11-15T19:26:00.000-05:002011-11-15T19:34:20.768-05:00Gene Weingarten - Losing FaceAsk my husband G, this conversation has taken place during most every movie we have ever watched. This is why I do not like to watch movies alone, there is no one to clue me in.<br />
<br />
This is an old post, but just came to my attention.<br />
<br />
From the Washington Post, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/13/AR2008031302273_pf.html">Gene Weingarten - Losing Face</a>: <br />
<br />
<a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pengoopmcjnbflcjbmoeodbmoflcgjlk" style="font-size: 13px;">'via Blog this'</a><br />
<br />
<span><b>Losing Face</b></span><br />Gene gets no recognition<br />
<span>By Gene Weingarten<br />Sunday, March 16, 2008 </span><br />
<span><br /></span><br />
<br />
This is what it is like to be at the movies with me.<br />
<b>Me</b>: Is that the same guy who was in the last scene, with the girl?<br />
<b>Wife</b>: Yes. Shh.<br />
<b>Me</b>: But he had a beard in the last scene.<br />
<b>Wife</b>: No, he didn't. Shhh.<br />
<b>Me</b>: Are you sure?<br />
<b>Wife</b>: Shhhhh.<br />
<b>Me</b>: (Sulk.)<br />
<b><br /></b><br />
<b>Wife</b>: Listen, you idiot. It's Tom Cruise. The same Tom Cruise who was in the previous scene. It's the same one who will be in the next scene. It's the same one who had Renee Zellweger at hello in the <i>last</i> movie when you forgot who Tom Cruise was, and, yes, by the way, that was Renee Zellweger, not Kirsten Dunst, who looks nothing like Renee Zellweger and would not be confused for Renee Zellweger by anyone but you, okay?<br />
<b><br /></b><br />
<b>Stranger in next seat</b>: Shhh.<br />
<br />
I have trouble recognizing and remembering faces. It is a mild form of a disorder called prosopagnosia, which in its most extreme form can cause you to look in a mirror and not recognize the person looking back at you.<br />
<br />
My face-recognition dysfunction is pretty minor, but it is severely tested when watching a movie, a circumstance where you are suddenly presented with many unfamiliar people interacting in complicated ways, and you must learn to quickly tell them apart. I'm okay if a character has some dramatic distinguishing characteristic, or speaks in a distinctive way -- I was <i>just fine</i> with the Wicked Witch of the West -- but if the characters seem to be random assemblages of run-of-the-mill noses and eyes, lips and ears, I am in trouble.<br />
In men, there is a certain intense, generic look that particularly confounds me. I cannot distinguish Liam Neeson from Ralph Fiennes from that guy who played Ingrid Bergman's goody-two-shoes husband in "Casablanca." All the same fella, far as I can tell. Also Jimmy Stewart and Gary Cooper.<br />
With women, my problem is blondes. Renee Zellweger and Loretta Swit and Kirsten Dunst and Gwyneth Paltrow and Lana Turner. Same lady.<br />
<br />
When watching the Oscar-winning film "The Departed," I could not reliably distinguish Matt Damon from Leonardo DiCaprio, which proved to be a significant problem, because one was a good guy masquerading as a bad guy and one was a bad guy masquerading as a good guy. By the end of the film, many people were deceased, but I had no clear idea about who had done what to whom, and why.<br />
<br />
Outside of the movies, I'm mostly okay, though I don't believe I have ever in my life, once, been able to recognize someone out of context, and that can be an embarrassing problem. Do you know that risque two-people-meet-in-a-supermarket joke with the punch line, "No, I'm your son's math teacher"? Well, I am that guy. Feel free to Google it.<br />
<br />
Here is the worst thing that ever happened to me because of my condition:<br />
Sometime after being hired as an editor by The Washington Post, I realized that a certain writer at the paper -- one of the people whose work I most respected -- detested me. I never talked to him about it because there didn't seem any point. It wasn't until years later that I learned from a third party what had happened. When I was being interviewed for the job, this man had gone out to lunch with me. We had talked deeply and richly about subjects of mutual interest, and he had given a glowing report back to management. I was hired, at least in part, on the basis of his recommendation.<br />
<br />
But when I arrived at the newspaper a month later, I passed him in the hall -- many times -- and never thanked him or even acknowledged him. He concluded, with ample justification, that I was a total jerk. The fact is, I had no recognition of who he was, and by the time I figured it out, the damage was done.<br />
To the guy in question: I'm really sorry, and I hope you recognize yourself from this anecdote. If it helps, you're the one who looks kind of like Sean Connery. Or, possibly, Dustin Hoffman.<br />
<br />
<i>Gene Weingarten can be reached at weingarten@washpost.com. </i><br />dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15338839345653126512noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2384372176412065244.post-81291223469185127062011-11-11T09:17:00.001-05:002011-11-11T09:28:14.580-05:00MApping Charlie: A Mystery Novel<br />
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;">
A great new book has been published by author Jane Meyerding. Its called Mapping Charlie, and it features a character who is Faceblind. While the book is fiction, it gives uncommon insight into the life of someone who is Prosopagnosic. Below is an excerpt from a fascinating interview with the author Jane on the <a href="http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/autism-unexpected/2011/nov/8/focus-autistic-author-jane-meyerding/">Washington Times website</a>:</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;">
<i>Meyerding has been a writer for many years, although she has mostly written non-fiction essays, some of which you can find on her website at <a href="http://www.planetautism.com/jane/index.html" style="color: #164a6e; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 2px; padding-top: 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://www.planetautism.com/jane/index.html</a>. In 1994, a small press published a mystery novel she wrote, in a process that Meyerding describes as "exceedingly painful," which is one reason she chose to self-publish Mapping Charlie.</i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;">
<i>Face blindness is obviously a personal subject for Meyerding, considering that she experiences it daily. She's never pursued a diagnosis ("I guess it's just too obvious to require confirmation," she comments.) for her prosopagnosia, but she says that learning about it was a revelation.</i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;">
<i>"Other people really could recognize each other right away," she says about her wonderment in learning of face blindness. "They weren't just pretending better because they had better social skills, and there really is a part of the human brain to handle that function—except that my brain simply doesn't."</i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;">
<i>She goes on to say that knowing about faceblindness helps because, "You realize you don't have to choose between 'I'm lazy' and 'I'm crazy,' and you can meet others online or elsewhere and share strategies for dealing with the face-sighted majority.</i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;">
<i>Meyerding's character Kay has to do exactly that in Mapping Charlie. Her faceblindness leads to her becoming a suspect when a college classmate of hers is murdered. Unbeknownst to her, because she didn't realize he was the same person, Kay is the last person known to have spoken to him, after running into him on a city bus.</i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;">
This is not only a good book for prosopagnosics and those wanting to understand more about how they function, it is a fantastic read in general!</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;">
Mapping Charlie<em style="font-style: oblique;"> is available from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Mapping-Charlie-Jane-Meyerding/dp/0557974550" style="color: #164a6e; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 2px; padding-top: 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Amazon</a> and <a href="http://www.lulu.com/browse/search.php?search_forum=-1&search_cat=2&show_results=topics&return_chars=200&search_keywords=&keys=&header_search=true&search=&locale=&sitesearch=lulu.com&q=&fListingClass=0&fSearch=Mapping+Charlie++By+Jane+Meyerding&fSubmitSearch.x=14&fSubmitSearch.y=9" style="color: #164a6e; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 2px; padding-top: 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Lulu.com</a>. Keep up to date on Meyerding's work and publishing schedule on her website at <a href="http://www.planetautism.com/jane/index.html" style="color: #164a6e; padding-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 2px; padding-top: 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://www.planetautism.com/jane/index.html</a>. </em></div>dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15338839345653126512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2384372176412065244.post-76420962028701075162011-10-06T15:22:00.001-05:002012-06-19T17:09:51.421-05:00<span class="story-date" style="background-color: white; color: #505050; display: block; float: left; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; padding-bottom: 8px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 13px; width: 290px;"><span class="date" style="font-weight: bold;">For us Topograpical Agnosics, here is an article from www.bbc.co.uk</span></span><span class="story-date" style="background-color: white; color: #505050; display: block; float: left; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; padding-bottom: 8px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 13px; width: 290px;"><span class="date" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="date"><br /></span></span></span><span class="story-date" style="background-color: white; color: #505050; display: block; float: left; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; padding-bottom: 8px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 13px; width: 290px;"><span class="date" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="date">It honestly does not seem near as helpful as I'd hope, but I guess every little bit helps, right?</span></span></span><span class="story-date" style="background-color: white; color: #505050; display: block; float: left; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; padding-bottom: 8px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 13px; width: 290px;"><span class="date" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="date"><br /></span></span></span><span class="story-date" style="background-color: white; color: #505050; display: block; float: left; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; padding-bottom: 8px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 13px; width: 290px;"><span class="date" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="date">5 October 2011</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"> </span><span class="time-text" style="color: #666666; font-weight: normal;">Last updated at </span><span class="time" style="font-weight: normal;">21:00 ET</span></span></span><br />
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Six ways to never get lost in a city again</h1>
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Many people now rely on their smartphones, sat-navs or other GPS devices to find their way around. But when these fail us, and there's no-one to ask for directions, there's a more natural way to navigate, says Tristan Gooley.</div>
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It's not every week that a massive solar flare knocks out the GPS network, but all it takes is a flat battery or a mechanical fault to hobble your automated orientation aids.</div>
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And if there's no-one around to ask and no paper map on hand, you could be in trouble.</div>
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Natural navigation may be just what you need. This involves working out which way to go without using maps, compasses or any other instruments. It relies on awareness and deduction, so does depend on retaining some awareness of direction throughout each journey.</div>
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1. TV satellite dishes</h2>
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<img alt="Satellite dishes on homes in a Welsh town" height="171" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/55837000/jpg/_55837027_satellite_getty.jpg" style="-webkit-user-select: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; font-style: italic; letter-spacing: 0px; position: relative;" width="304" /><span style="display: block; width: 304px;">Look for satellite dishes and signs of weathering</span></div>
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These really are the "get out of jail free" cards in an urban area.</div>
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This is because the dishes point at a geostationary satellite, one that stays over the same point on the Earth's surface.</div>
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In the UK there is a dominant satellite broadcaster, hence nearly all the dishes tend to point in the same direction - close to southeast.</div>
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The same applies in rural areas - especially those blessed with pubs screening sport.</div>
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2. Religious buildings</h2>
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<img alt="Aerial view of a church" height="244" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/55837000/jpg/_55837030_church2thinkstock.jpg" style="-webkit-user-select: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; font-style: italic; letter-spacing: 0px; position: relative;" width="224" /><span style="display: block; width: 224px;">East is east</span></div>
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From earliest times, religious buildings and sacred sites have been laid out to give clues as to direction.</div>
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Christian churches are normally aligned west-east, with the main altar at the eastern end to face the sunrise. Gravestones, too, are aligned west-east.</div>
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To find direction from a mosque, you need to go inside and look for the niche in one wall, which indicates the direction for prayer. This niche, known as al-Qibla, will be the direction of Mecca, wherever you are in the world.</div>
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And synagogues normally place the Torah Ark at the eastern end, positioned so worshippers face towards Jerusalem. (Synagogues in countries east of Israel will face west.)</div>
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3. Weathering</h2>
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“<span style="display: block; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-indent: -5000px;">Start Quote</span></h2>
<img alt="Tristan Gooley" height="81" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/55837000/jpg/_55837991_tristan_bbc.jpg" style="-webkit-user-select: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; display: block; font-style: italic; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: -12px;" width="144" /><br />
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I teach people to find their way using only the sun, stars, moon, plants, animals, weather and buildings”</div>
</blockquote>
<span class="quote-credit" style="clear: both; display: block; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Tristan Gooley</span><br />
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The prevailing winds carry rain and pollution. These then hit the buildings, leaving patterns.</div>
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The wind comes from the southwest in the UK more often than from any other direction. This results in asymmetrical weathering patterns on buildings - similar to the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/earth/surface_and_interior/erosion" style="color: #1f4f82; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; text-decoration: none;" title="BBC Earth clips and info on erosion">erosion seen in nature</a>.</div>
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Look up, above the cleaned glass and metals of the lower floors, to the natural stone or weathered bricks higher up.</div>
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Notice how the building's corners all show subtly different weathering patterns.</div>
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The contrast between southwest and northeast corners is the greatest. But the shifts in colours, where the rain and pollutants have left their mark, can be read on all sides with a little practice.</div>
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Trees, too, indicate direction, with the very tops combed over by the prevailing wind.</div>
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4. Flow of people</h2>
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<img alt="Commuters leave Waterloo Station, London" height="181" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/55837000/jpg/_55837985_commuters304getty.jpg" style="-webkit-user-select: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; font-style: italic; letter-spacing: 0px; position: relative;" width="304" /><span style="display: block; width: 304px;">Rush hour crowds point the way</span></div>
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Pacific navigators learned to follow the birds in their search of land. They quickly realised that while an individual bird can behave eccentrically, a pair - or even better a flock - will follow a pattern.</div>
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The same is true of human beings. There is no point following an individual, you could end up anywhere. But following a crowd in the late afternoon will take you towards a station or other transport hub. In the mornings, walk against the flow to find these stations.</div>
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At lunchtime in sunny weather, crowds move from office blocks towards the open spaces of parks and rivers.</div>
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5. Road alignment</h2>
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<img alt="Hot air balloon over Bristol" height="171" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/55837000/jpg/_55837988_roads_balloon_getty.jpg" style="-webkit-user-select: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; font-style: italic; letter-spacing: 0px; position: relative;" width="304" /><span style="display: block; width: 304px;">Wind direction and road layout can help</span></div>
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Roads do not spring up randomly, they grow to carry traffic - and the bulk of traffic is either heading into or out of a town. So the biggest roads tend to be aligned in a certain way, depending on whether you are in the centre or on the outskirts.</div>
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In the north or south of town, the major roads will tend to be aligned north/south. In the northwest or southeast, they will have a bias towards northwest/southeast. This is why road maps of big towns show a radial pattern.</div>
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It is common sense, but very few people realise this when they feel lost in a big city.</div>
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6. Clouds</h2>
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<img alt="Edinburgh with clouds above" height="208" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/55837000/jpg/_55837024_edinburgh_clouds_thinkstock.jpg" style="-webkit-user-select: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; font-style: italic; letter-spacing: 0px; position: relative;" width="304" /><span style="display: block; width: 304px;">Look up into the skies</span></div>
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One of the best ways <em style="line-height: 16px;">not</em> to lose your sense of direction is to hold onto it. My favourite way of doing this in a city is to orientate myself - using some of the clues above - and then note the direction the clouds are moving.</div>
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The wind pushing the clouds will remain fairly constant, providing there's no dramatic change in the weather.</div>
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This technique really earns its keep on underground journeys, especially to a new part of town. Simply look up before you head underground, and remember the direction of the clouds. When you emerge in a strange part of the city, look up again and you'll be able to work out which way is which from the clouds overhead.</div>
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<em style="line-height: 16px;">Tristan Gooley is on BBC Two's All Roads Lead Home, which started Wednesday 5 October at 2000 BST - or </em><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b012yq4v" style="color: #1f4f82; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; text-decoration: none;" title="All Roads Lead Home ">catch up with iPlayer</a><em style="line-height: 16px;">.</em></div>dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15338839345653126512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2384372176412065244.post-66463987204569153892011-05-18T12:36:00.000-05:002011-05-18T12:36:28.227-05:00One Person's Thoughts on Living With FaceblindnessI am part of an online support community for Prosopagnosics. We have regular discussions about living with PA. The entry in italics below was posted during a discussion on whether we think of ourselves as disabled or not. For me, it depends on the day.<br />
<br />
<i>"When I went to bed last night I had a long think about how different<br />
it is to not be FB. I thought specifically of my friend down the<br />
road, who is just over a year older than me and has similar<br />
intelligence.<br />
<br />
Here are some points:</i> <i><br />
<br />
My friend never meets someone in the village or the nearby town and</i> <i><br />
doesn't know if she's met them before or not.<br />
She never has a conversation while trying madly to work out who the<br />
other person is.<br />
When someone comes into her shop she knows if they have shopped with<br />
her before, and often she will remember something about what they have<br />
bought previously.<br />
She never gets confused watching tv, movie or theatre because some of<br />
the characters look much the same.<br />
If she leaves a crowded room, when she returns she can spot who she<br />
was talking to before she left.<br />
She has never confused two people because they have the same gender<br />
and similar hair.<br />
She has never had to wait until she's back home to have an "aha<br />
moment" about who she was talking to earlier.<br />
She has never worked with someone for an entire afternoon and then<br />
failed to recognise them the very next day.<br />
She doesn't suffer an extreme disorientation when someone close to her<br />
radically changes their hairstyle.<br />
If she went to school reunion she would recognise most of her<br />
ex-classmates even though she left school more than 20 years ago!<br />
She has never failed to recognise her own mother/sister/aunt etc<br />
She has never stood waiting for someone only to find the other person<br />
is waiting for her just a few yards away.<br />
<br />
<b>What this all leads me to think is that our state of confusion is so<br />
normal to us that we don't actually know how extreme it is. If my<br />
friend was to suddenly become FB she'd be devastated. Even when she<br />
developed coping skills she would still look back with a sense of<br />
intense loss.</b></i> <i><br />
<br />
Whether we call it disablity or not I think is just semantics. You</i> <i><br />
could say the same about dyslexia - if the dyslexic person isn't at<br />
this moment having to deal with reading or writing they are not<br />
disabled in this moment, but they still qualify as disabled for<br />
accommodations."</i><br />
-Autiste Ruth<br />
(thanks to Autiste Ruth for allowing me to re-post this) <br />
<br />
<i> </i>The above statement in bold letters is as striking to me as a bang on the head. It reminds me that even when I think I am having a good day recognizing people, through the use of coping skills, I really have no idea if that it so.dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15338839345653126512noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2384372176412065244.post-82676574002383235882011-05-06T18:22:00.001-05:002011-05-06T18:47:27.916-05:00Prosopagnosia, the science behind face blindness : The New YorkerI've just finished reading Chapter four from Oliver Sacks' latest book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Minds-Eye-Oliver-Sacks/dp/0307272087/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1304724271&sr=8-1">The Mind's Eye</a>. It is his first person account of being prosopagnosic. Definitely worth a read, since it has a lot of good background information on the condition itself.<br />
<br />
Here is the Abstract for the article he published in the New Yorker as a lead-in media piece. The great thing about it when it came out was the number of readers, in New York and elsewhere, who became familiar with PA.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_sacks">Prosopagnosia, the science behind face blindness : The New Yorker</a>: "ABSTRACT: A NEUROLOGIST’S NOTEBOOK about prosopagnosia, or the inability to recognize faces and places. Writer describes his own difficulties recognizing and remembering faces. He also has the same difficulty with places and often becomes lost when he strays from familiar routes. At the age of seventy-seven, despite a lifetime of trying to compensate, he has no less trouble with faces and places than when he was younger. He is particularly thrown when seeing a person out of context, even if he was with that person five minutes before. Writer gives several examples of his inability to recognize familiar people out of context, including his therapist and his assistant. After learning that his brother suffered from the same problem, the writer came to believe that they both had a specific trait, a so-called prosopagnosia, probably with a distinctive genetic basis. Mentions several other people who have the same trait, including Jane Goodall and the artist Chuck Close. Face recognition is crucially important for humans, and the vast majority of us are able to identify thousands of faces individually, or to easily pick out familiar faces in a crowd. People with prosopagnosia need to be resourceful, inventive in finding strategies for circumventing their deficits: recognizing people by an unusual nose or beard, or by their spectacles, or a certain type of clothing. Describes research done on the way the brain recognizes faces. Tells about the work of Christopher Pallis, Charles Gross, Olivier Pascalis, Isabel Gauthier, and other scientists. Above all, the recognition of faces depends not only on the ability to parse the visual aspects of the face—its particular features and their over-all configuration—and compare them with others, but also on the ability to summon the memories, experiences, and feelings associated with that face. The recognition of specific places or faces goes with a particular feeling, a sense of association and meaning. Briefly discusses déjà vu and Capgras syndrome. Considers the difference between acquired prosopagnosia—through stroke or Alzheimer’s for example—and congenital prosopagnosia. Discusses the work of Ken Nakayama and Brad Duchaine, who have explored the neural basis of face and place recognition. They have also studied the psychological effects and social consequences of developmental prosopagnosia. Severe congenital prosopagnosia is estimated to affect two to two and a half per cent of the population—six to eight million people in the United States alone.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Oliver Sacks, A Neurologist’s Notebook, “Face-Blind,” The New Yorker, August 30, 2010, p. 36dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15338839345653126512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2384372176412065244.post-17620012950894667552011-05-05T17:02:00.001-05:002011-05-05T17:18:37.981-05:00What's in a human face? on Vimeo<a href="http://www.vimeo.com/17841642">What's in a human face? on Vimeo</a>: Almudena Toral made this slide show of a prosopagnosic New York man. She is the reporter who is working on the story for NY Times video, which this man James Cooke and myself will be in. It is short and very well done.<br />
<br />
I like the fact that he explains that he CAN see faces when he is looking at them, something that isn't always understood about prosopagnosics, in part due to the fact that we use the slang term "Faceblind".<br />
I feel that sometimes this does us a disservice as far as describing the condition, since, with rare exception, we can all SEE faces.<br />
<br />
I also related to the fact that he no longer really pays attention to faces. Its sad but true that when you clean little information from something, it no longer becomes that important for you to look at, except for the fact that, well, it makes people feel important. I am sometimes made aware that because I am not watching a person's face, they don't think I am listening to them. Its a big thing for humans. On the other hand, I know if I stare at a person's face, I will get little if any valuable recognition information, but i will feel more accountable as far as recognizing them in the future after they see me paying attention to their face. That's not something I relish.dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15338839345653126512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2384372176412065244.post-79385382441683727772011-05-03T13:10:00.003-05:002011-05-18T12:41:26.770-05:00Story for New York Times<div class="mobile-photo"><img alt="" border="0" height="400" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5602553864426290258" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MDn8ajMjeA4/TcBFDlwe_FI/AAAAAAAALYo/rB7XSZbuzgM/s400/IMAG1803-720589.jpg" width="239" /> Almudena Toral, reporter, videotaping at my house.</div><div class="mobile-photo"><br />
</div><div class="mobile-photo">Most of the day Tuesday, I was videotaped by photojournalist Almudena Toral, a free-lance journalist who is doing a piece on Prosopagnosia (PA) for the NY Times. She is about as excited about having her picture posted on this blog as I am about outing myself through her video for the New York Times.<br />
I notice many journalists are much more comfortable telling the story than being it.</div>dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15338839345653126512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2384372176412065244.post-9054927938974395782010-05-14T09:37:00.001-05:002010-05-14T09:37:50.662-05:00Re: Faceblidness Front and Center - Lecture in New York<br><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;"><h1 name="headerz">World Science Festival is presenting:<br></h1> <h1 name="headerz">Strangers in the Mirror</h1> <div><div> <div><div><a href="https://www.ovationtix.com/trs/pe/8117275" target="_blank">BUY TICKETS</a></div></div> <div> </div> <div> <div> <div> <div> <p><img src="http://www.worldsciencefestival.com/system/files/images/events/2010/close150x150.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="200"> </p> </div> </div> </div> <div> <div> <div> <span>Friday, June 4, 2010, <span>8:00 PM</span><span> - </span><span>10:30 PM</span></span> </div> </div> </div> <div> <div> <div> <a href="http://www.worldsciencefestival.com/kaye-playhouse" target="_blank">The Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College</a> </div> </div> </div> <p>What's it like to face a faceless world? Acclaimed neurologist Oliver Sacks once apologized for almost bumping into a large bearded man, only to realize he was speaking to a mirror. Sacks and photorealist painter Chuck Close—geniuses from opposite ends of the creative spectrum—share their experiences of living with a curious condition known as "face blindness," or prosopagnosia. The two will discuss the challenges of maintaining interpersonal relationships-- when even family and close friends appear as strangers.</p> <p><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><b>Moderator:</b></span> <a href="http://www.worldsciencefestival.com/robert-krulwich" target="_blank">Robert Krulwich</a></p><div> <div>Participants: </div> <div> <div> <div><div> <h2> <a href="http://www.worldsciencefestival.com/chuck-close" title="Chuck Close" target="_blank">Chuck Close</a> </h2> <div> </div> <div> <p><img alt="Chuck Close" src="http://www.worldsciencefestival.com/system/files/images/people/2010/close.jpg" width="100" align="left" height="100"> Chuck Close is a visual artist noted for his highly inventive techniques used to paint the human face, and is best known for his large-scale, photo-based portrait paintings. He is also an accomplished printmaker and photographer whose work has been the subject of more than 200 solo exhibitions in more than 20 countries, including major retrospective exhibitions at New York's Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid and most recently at the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. He has also participated in nearly 800 group exhibitions.<span><a href="http://www.worldsciencefestival.com/chuck-close" target="_blank"><b>read more</b></a></span></p> <div> <div> <div> <p><br> </p> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div></div> </div> <div> <div><div> <h2> <a href="http://www.worldsciencefestival.com/robert-krulwich" title="Robert Krulwich" target="_blank">Robert Krulwich</a> </h2> <div> </div> <div> <p><img src="http://www.worldsciencefestival.com/system/files/images/people/robert-krulwich.jpg" alt="Robert Krulwich" width="100" align="left" height="100">Robert Krulwich is an award-winning radio and television journalist who has been called 'the most inventive network reporter in television' by TV Guide. He is an ABC News correspondent, NPR science correspondent, and co-host of WNYC's science documentary program, <i>Radio Lab</i>.<span><a href="http://www.worldsciencefestival.com/robert-krulwich" target="_blank"><b>read more</b></a></span></p> <div> <div> <div> <p><br></p> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div></div> </div> <div> <div><div> <h2> <a href="http://www.worldsciencefestival.com/oliver-sacks" title="Oliver Sacks" target="_blank">Oliver Sacks</a> </h2> <div> </div> <div> <p><img alt="Oliver Sacks" src="http://www.worldsciencefestival.com/system/files/images/people/2010/sacks.jpg" width="100" align="left" height="100">Neurologist Oliver Sacks has spent a lifetime exploring a vast array of human experience – from Tourette's syndrome and autism to phantom limb syndrome and schizophrenia. His many best-selling books include <i>Uncle Tungsten</i>, <i>The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat</i>, and <i>Awakenings</i>, which became an acclaimed film. Sacks is a professor of neurology and psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center and a Columbia University Artist. His writings appear regularly in <i>The New Yorker</i> and <i>The New York Review of Books</i>.<span><a href="http://www.worldsciencefestival.com/oliver-sacks" target="_blank"><b>read more</b></a></span></p> <div> <div> <div> <p><br></p> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <br><div> <h2>Venue</h2> <a href="http://www.worldsciencefestival.com/kaye-playhouse" target="_blank">The Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College</a></div> </div></div><br> </blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>dori<br><br>646-734-5211<br> dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15338839345653126512noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2384372176412065244.post-91366251832871538532010-02-24T11:03:00.001-05:002010-02-24T11:03:55.772-05:00Another Research-Oriented Faceblind article<a href="http://www.aolnews.com/science/article/cant-place-the-face-maybe-its-your-genes/19369647?ncid=webmaildl1" target="_blank">Can't Place the Face? Maybe It's Your Genes - AOL News</a><br><div class="gmail_quote"> <br>Really felt like this one one of the poorer representations of Prosopagnosia. It emphasizes the genetic role that they have uncovered through research, but seems to minimize the extent of the problem. I was most discouraged by the quote at the end from the Neurobiologist, Margaret Livingstone, who does not seem to have a grasp of the deficit, and attributes it more to a "motivational gene" (my quotations marks).<br> <br>On the plus side, it is one more piece of information to help get the word out to the mainstream media.<br><br><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-family: serif; font-size: 16px;"> <div style="padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px;"> <div> <div style="padding-bottom: 10px; color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: bold; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px;"></div> <div style="padding-bottom: 30px;"> <div> <div> <h1 style="padding-bottom: 8.9px; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 44.4833px;"> Can't Place the Face? Maybe It's Your Genes</h1><h1 style="padding-bottom: 8.9px; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 44.4833px;"><b style="padding-bottom: 4px; padding-top: 7px; font-weight: bold; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><a href="http://www.aolnews.com/team/traci-watson" target="_blank">Traci Watson</a></b> <span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153); font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14.7167px;">Contributor</span></h1> </div></div><div><div style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-top: 10px;"> </div> <div style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 19.2px;"> (Feb. 23) -- A guest at a party taps your shoulder and says, "Remember me?" If you don't, just blame it on your genes.<br><br>New research shows that the ability to recognize faces is strongly genetic, meaning that your ability to identify a second cousin last encountered 20 years ago will depend heavily on whether your parents could do the same.<br> <br>Skill at facial recognition is roughly 75 percent or more inherited, says Wellesley College vision scientist Jeremy Wilmer, the lead scientist behind the new research. That means the next time you draw a blank when someone swears to have met you before, "it's at least 75 percent your parents' genetic fault," Wilmer says.<br> <br>The environment in which a person grew up does play a small role, but by far the largest influence is the genetic material handed down from parents to children, he says.<br><div><img style="background-color: rgb(243, 243, 243);" src="http://o.aolcdn.com/photo-hub/news_gallery/6/5/650781/1266946503267.JPEG" alt="Image from Cambridge Memory Test for Faces"> <div style="background-color: rgb(243, 243, 243); padding-bottom: 3px; padding-right: 1.66667px; padding-top: 0.833333px; color: rgb(157, 158, 153); font-family: arial; font-size: 10px;"> Courtesy Jeremy Wilmer</div> <div style="background-color: rgb(243, 243, 243); padding-left: 5px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial; font-size: 11px;">How good are you at recognizing faces? You can test your skills at <a style="color: rgb(0, 65, 115);" href="http://www.faceblind.org/facetests/index.php" target="_blank">faceblind.org</a>.</div> </div><br>Scientists had suspected for years that face recognition might be genetic, because they've tracked down clusters of blood relatives who have trouble recognizing faces. One Las Vegas family, for example, included eight members over four generations, and they all struggled to identify other people by their faces, says Bradley Duchaine of University College London, another member of the research team.<br> <br>But just because many members of one clan have the same disability doesn't necessarily mean it's in their DNA. It could be that they were all exposed to the same environmental factors in childhood.<br><br>So Wilmer and his team set out to study twins. They recruited identical twins, who share 100 percent of their genes, and nonidentical twins, who share only 50 percent of their genes. All the twins took a quiz in which they viewed six faces. Then they were shown a selection of faces and asked to pick those they'd seen before. <a style="color: rgb(0, 65, 115);" href="http://www.faceblind.org/facetests/index.php" target="_blank"> (Take the test yourself.)</a><br> <br>The resulting scores were all over the map. Some people did no better than if they had guessed wildly without even looking at the faces they were supposed to study. Others aced the test. <br><br>What intrigued the researchers was that for identical twins, in general, each racked up scores similar to the other twin's score. Fraternal twins were less likely to score close together. That translates to a strong genetic influence on face recognition. <br> <br>The scientists double-checked their findings by having the twins take word memorization tests. They found that those who were whizzes at word memorization were not necessarily geniuses at face memorization -- meaning that the ability to store and recall faces is a unique and individual skill that has nothing to do with memory overall.<br> <br>One scientist not affiliated with the research team describes its work as "beautiful." Neurobiologist Margaret Livingstone of Harvard University says that perhaps some genes make people want to look at faces, giving them the practice to shine at the task of recognizing a crooked eyebrow or a thick nose. <br> <br>The new study was published in the most recent issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.</div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;">Filed under: <a style="color: rgb(0, 65, 115);" href="http://www.aolnews.com/category/science" target="_blank">Science</a></div></div></div></div></div></div></div> <br> dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15338839345653126512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2384372176412065244.post-47550714078489852482009-12-15T12:39:00.001-05:002009-12-15T12:39:11.912-05:00Re: faceblind: Prosopagnosia Research<a href="http://community.livejournal.com/faceblind/34713.html" target="_blank">faceblind: Prosopagnosia Research</a><br><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> <br>Here is another testing opportunity for Prosopagnosia on west coast of the USA. <br>Posted in LiveJournal July 23rd, 2009<br> <div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-family: serif; font-size: 13px;"><div><br></div> <div><font size="+1" face="Arial,Helvetica"><i style="font-style: italic;"><b>Prosopagnosia Research</b></i></font><br> I recently went to visit Dr. Nathan Witthoft, an individual working in the Stanford Vision and Perception Neuroscience Lab, who is doing research on individuals that have prosopagnosia. I had a very good time speaking with him and taking part in his tests. It was really neat to actually have someone test my facial perception and show me how I fared compared with people that are more neurotypical. I'm really curious to see what he comes up with in his research.<br> <br>Anyways, he's looking for more volunteers to come in and take some of his tests, so I thought I'd pass along the information, as he is a nice guy doing legit research in this field.<br><br>Here's a description of what he's doing that he sent me:<br> " I work in a visual neuroscience lab that studies high level vision using psychophysics and fMRI. We have an ongoing project studying people with congenital prosopagnosia. Generally speaking people with CP have normal vision and normal cognition but extraordinary difficulty recognizing people from their faces. This difficulty is lifelong, though it does take some people a while to realize that there face recognition is not as good as most other people. The experiments are a number of psychophysical tasks which we use to try to understand the nature of the problem and also several brain imaging experiments including fMRI and DTI (mapping the white matter pathways in the brain). We do pay for subjects' time, though the amount is limited by the IRB, generally 15$/hour for the behavioral studies and 30$/hour for the imaging. Let me know if the description sounds like you and you are interested in participating. If you are not sure if you fall into this group or not, we have our own set of tests that are fairly good at <br> picking out people with real difficulties."<br><br>The lab's website is here: <a style="color: rgb(0, 0, 204);" href="http://vpnl.stanford.edu/" target="_blank">http://vpnl.stanford.edu/</a><br><br>If you have any interest in working with him, his email address is <a href="mailto:witthoft@stanford.edu" target="_blank">witthoft@stanford.edu</a>. I think he's looking for locals, since he wants people to come into his office to do the tests, but if you know anyone that might be interested, let them know.</div> </div> </blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br> dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15338839345653126512noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2384372176412065244.post-56381903482236305512009-07-22T10:44:00.002-05:002009-07-22T10:46:58.633-05:00Perception and Prosopagnosia<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><div class="post"><br /><p><br />This is an hour long presentation by Lynn Robertson, from UC Berkely, on prosopagnosia presented by the Google TechTalks Series.<br /></p><br /><center><br /><div style="width: 425px;" class="videoFrame"><br /><object width="425" height="350"><br /><param value="http://www.youtube.com/v/q7OPRZDUBd4&autoplay=0" name="movie"><br /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/q7OPRZDUBd4&autoplay=0" width="425" height="350"></embed><br /></object><br /></div><br /></center><br /></div></div>dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15338839345653126512noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2384372176412065244.post-14309014343900906502009-05-29T10:16:00.001-05:002009-05-29T10:16:26.082-05:00MSNBC Story on Super-Recognizers<a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30945729/print/1/displaymode/1098/" target="_blank">Some people never forget a face - Behavior</a><br><br><div alink="#cc0000" bgcolor="#ffffff" vlink="#666666" link="#0066cc"><div><img src="http://c.msn.com/c.gif?NC=1255&NA=1154&PS=73838&PI=7329&DI=305&TP=http%3a%2f%2fmsnbc.msn.com%2f" alt="MSN Tracking Image" border="0"></div> <div><table style="width: 100%;"><tbody><tr><td><img src="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/images/MSNBC/msnbc_ban.gif" border="0"> <font size="3" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>MSNBC.com</b></font></td></tr></tbody></table> </div><div><br>Some people never forget a face </div><div>'Super-recognizers' have uncanny ability to remember everyone they meet</div><div><div>By Elizabeth Fernandez</div><div> <a href="http://msnbc.com" target="_blank">msnbc.com</a> contributor</div><div><span>updated <span>8:27 a.m. ET,</span> <span>Thurs., May 28, 2009</span></span></div></div><p> We've all had that sinking feeling: a person seems familiar, someone we might have once met, but somehow we just can't place the face. </p><p>Not Jennifer Jarett. She never forgets a face. Not even someone she met for just a moment, not even decades later.</p> <p>Jarett is a "super-recognizer,'' a freshly minted term for an elite group of people who are exceptional at remembering faces.</p><p>"It's sort of a weird thing to be able to do,'' says Jarett, 38, a Manhattan resident who works as a city employee. "My friends refer to me as their memory. People's faces don't really change to me, even people from my childhood. It's as if they are cemented in my brain.''</p> <p>Psychologists at Harvard University have discovered that Jarett shares her special knack with others, establishing for the first time that some people have superior skills at face recognition. </p> <p><b>From face blind to super-vision<br></b>New research shows that there's a broad range of face-recognition ability, a spectrum ranging from the "face blind'' to those on the opposite end with superior powers of perception.</p> <p>"Super-recognizers actually see faces differently,'' says Dr. Richard Russell, a researcher in the Harvard Vision Sciences Laboratory and lead author of the new study published in Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. "They can recognize people out of context, people who aren't important to them, people who they may have met only briefly.''</p> <p>Russell and his colleagues were investigating developmental prosopagnosia, a condition in which people have normal vision but are unable to recognize faces, even those of close relatives — an estimated 2 percent of the general population has exceptionally poor face-recognition ability. </p> <p>Amid the research, the scientists were contacted by Jarett and several others claiming to have stellar recognition abilities.</p><p>Intrigued, the scientists concocted a battery of difficult tests. One, called Before They Were Famous, required the subjects to identify famous individuals as children. All four test subjects passed the experiments with high marks. </p> <p>"My boyfriend called me a freak of nature,'' says Christine Erickson, 42, a stay-at-home mother of two in Boston, one of the super-recognizers. Erickson once had a chance encounter with a woman who years earlier had been her waitress.</p> <p>"She had transformed from being an edgy-looking urban hipster to having long hair and looking completely different,'' says Erickson. "I flipped through my mental files and recognized her.''</p> <p><b>Super-recognizer or, um, stalker?<br></b>To their chagrin, super-recognizers have learned that their special gifts are not always appreciated.</p><p>"People sometimes give me strange looks, like I was stalking them,'' says Jarett. </p> <p>Riding the subway about a year ago, she recognized a man who once worked for her hairdresser.</p><p>"I said 'You were Barry's assistant.' He looked at me funny — it had been five years. So I said 'Oh, the reason I remember you is because you did such a good job blowing out my hair.' He seemed really flattered.''</p> <p></p><p>Jarett hasn't found any particular use for her skill, but the study says benefits might surface. For instance, airport security employees could be screened for their ability to recognize faces, and eyewitnesses to crimes could similarly be assessed.</p> <p><b>Tips for ordinary folks<br></b>For people with average ability, Dr. Jim Tanaka, a professor of psychology at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada, who is not connected with the new study, offers a few tips to enhance recognition.</p> <p>"Pay close attention to the dynamics of the face — the movement, the expressions, the different angles,'' says Tanaka, who studies cognitive and neurological processes underlying face recognition.</p> <p>Also, he says, put less emphasis on superficial cues that can change over time, such as hairstyles and eyeglasses.</p><p></p><p>"Try to remember the structural aspects of the face instead of incidental surface features,'' he says. "Don't focus too much on details, but rather form an overall, holistic impression of a person's face.''</p> <p>As for Jarett, she's thrilled with her new scientific designation.</p><p>"My friends and I joke that I should get a cape with a big S on it,'' she says. "When I was little, I always wanted to have super powers. Now I'm finally getting to fulfill my childhood dream.''</p> <p><i>Elizabeth Fernandez is a writer based in San Francisco.</i></p><div>© 2009 <a href="http://msnbc.com" target="_blank">msnbc.com</a>. Reprints</div><p>URL: <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30945729/" target="_blank">http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30945729/</a></p> <br><div><div><a href="http://mobile.msn.com/device/en-us/privacy.aspx" target="_blank">MSN Privacy</a> . <a href="http://mobile.msn.com/device/en-us/terms.aspx" target="_blank">Legal</a></div> © 2009 MSNBC.com</div></div> dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15338839345653126512noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2384372176412065244.post-7931750684160811842009-05-24T09:21:00.004-05:002009-05-24T09:29:45.044-05:00New Topographical Agnosia GroupSince many of us with Prosopagnosia also have topographagnosia, ot Topographica Agnosia, or Topographical Agnosia, or Navigational Agnosia, or Topographical Disorientation (let's jsut call it TA, alright?), I decided to start a Yahoo Group where we could discuss are trials and tribulations of living with TA. Feel free to join the group and join the discussion.<br /><br />It would be nice to create a number of real-life stories there, so people who are looking to diagnose themselves could go there, read, and become more familiar with the condition.<br /><br />If you would like to subscribe, send an email here:<br /><a href="mailto:PlaceBlind-subscribe@yahoogroups.com" target="_blank">PlaceBlind-subscribe@<wbr>yahoogroups.com </a><br /><br />Please indicate why you are interested in subscribing.<br />You can find the group under the name Topographical Agnosia.dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15338839345653126512noreply@blogger.com0