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prosopagnosia

File:Fusiform_face_area_face_recognition.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

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prosopagnosia

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Also known as face blindness

Prosopagnosia, also known as face blindness, is a cognitive disorder of face perception in which the ability to recognize familiar faces, including one's own face (self-recognition), is impaired, while other aspects of visual processing (e.g., object discrimination) and intellectual functioning (e.g., decision-making) remain intact. The term originally referred to a condition following acute brain damage (acquired prosopagnosia), but a congenital or developmental form of the disorder also exists, with a prevalence of 2–2.5%.

Key facts

Medical condition (new).synonyms
Face blindness
Medical condition (new).image
Fusiform face area face recognition.jpg
Medical condition (new).image_size
220px
Medical condition (new).caption
The fusiform face area, the part of the brain associated with facial recognition
Medical condition (new).field
Neurology, neuropsychology
Medical condition (new).frequency
2–2.5%

via Wikipedia infobox

Research

1,277 papers

via PubMed

Wikidata facts

Subclass of
disease
Image
Prosopagnosia.jpg
Show 8 more facts
on focus list of Wikimedia project
WikiProject Medicine
afflicts
human
prevalence
0.025
NCI Thesaurus ID
C85031
health specialty
neurology
Commons category
Prosopagnosia
anatomical location
face perception
Sources (2)

via Wikidata · CC0

~24 min read

Encyclopedic overview

20 sections
Contents
  • Etymology
  • Physiology
  • Treatment
  • Implications
  • Types
  • Apperceptive
  • Associative
  • Developmental
  • Cause
  • Diagnosis
  • Comorbidities
  • Prognosis
  • History
  • Children
  • Notable people
  • In popular culture
  • See also
  • References
  • Further reading
  • External links

Prosopagnosia, also known as face blindness, is a cognitive disorder of face perception in which the ability to recognize familiar faces, including one's own face (self-recognition), is impaired, while other aspects of visual processing (e.g., object discrimination) and intellectual functioning (e.g., decision-making) remain intact. The term originally referred to a condition following acute brain damage (acquired prosopagnosia), but a congenital or developmental form of the disorder also exists, with a prevalence of 2–2.5%.

A common misconception is that prosopagnosics see faces' contours and details as blurry or distorted. The condition is not characterized by warped visuals. Seeing distorted faces is a common symptom of prosopometamorphopsia, not prosopagnosia.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “prosopagnosia” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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