How do you pronounce prosopagnosia?
Prosopagnosia is the medical term for face blindness. The word comes from the Greek – ancient Greek words: prosopon = ‘face’ + agnosia = ‘a lack of knowledge’.
The Cambridge Dictionary gives the pronunciation:
What is the difference between acquired, developmental and congenital face blindness?
Either Face Blindness or Prosopagnosia can be used to describe the neurological condition which results in a difficulty recognising people by their faces.
The term Acquired Prosopagnosia describes a difficulty recognising familiar faces which can follow an injury or illness affecting the brain (such as a stroke, encephalitis or head injury).
Developmental Prosopagnosia describes a difficulty recognising familiar faces from infancy, through childhood and into adulthood; the causes are still unclear.
Congenital Prosopagnosia or Hereditary Prosopagnosia are sometimes used, especially within the American literature, as alternative terms to refer to Developmental Prosopagnosia.
How common is Prosopagnosia?
Neuroscience researchers estimate that prosopagnosia affects at least 2% of the population. This means that there are an estimated 1.2 million people in the UK. However the vast majority of prosopagnosics are undiagnosed and often unaware that for most people face recognition is an automatic process.
Does prosopagnosia run in families?
Researchers have found evidence of clusters of individuals with prosopagnosia within a family. Indeed Developmental prosopagnosia is sometimes referred to as ‘congenital’ or ‘hereditary’ prosopagnosia. This would suggest that this could be genetic, though no genetic marker has yet been found. This occurrence might also reflect a transgenerational transmission linked to certain behaviours or styles of parenting within a family where a parent or grandparent has DP.
However there are also many anecdotal reports of DPs with no family history. Brad Duchaine examined the evidence in 2008 and concluded that non-hereditary DP might be the more common form, with a ratio of 3:2.
What other face recognition conditions are there?
There are a number of other conditions which affect face recognition in different ways, for example:
- Super-recognition – a heightened ability to recognise faces. Super-recognisers are sometimes employed by the police to identify specific individuals in a crowd or on video surveillance.
- Hyperfamiliarity – where everyone appears familiar.
- Capgrass Syndrome – where familiar faces are recognised, but without an emotional resonance, with the affected individual feeling they are meeting an imposter twin.
- Fregoli Syndrome – where the individual believes that different people they meet are actually the same person but appearing in various disguises.
Each will have its own particular social and psychological implications.
