Being able to recognize others by their face is taken so much for granted that a lot of human interaction and security occurs by assuming that everyone can recognize faces. However, this vital skill is not as straightforward as you might think and individuals with a rare condition called prosopagnosia provide a unique window into this complexity.
Prosopagnosia or 'face-blindness' can occur as a form of neurodiversity with 2% of the population having the difficulty; much more rarely, however, it can occur after brain injury with the result that once-recognizable faces such as family members can be ignored if no other clues to identity are available.
In this talk, I give a brief overview of prosopagnosia and then introduce you to David who suffered brain damage which has left him unable to recognize his wife, children, friends or famous people. I then interview David about the impact that prosopagnosia has had on his life and what it means on a day-to-day basis. After that, we take questions from the audience. This is a unique opportunity to meet someone with an extremely rare neuropsychological condition and we hope that you find it illuminating at a number of levels.
#prosopagnosia #faceblindness #neuroscience
