Article~ You hug strangers and can't recognise your husband: The bizarre nightmare of 'faceblindness'

January 10, 2008

, Thanks for posting this! I know Jo from a faceblind list that both of us are on. Do I have your permission to share this link with others off list? Newland wrote: You hug strangers and can't recognise your husband: The bizarre nightmare of

'faceblindness'By ANGELA EPSTEIN - More by this author » Last updated at 08:38am on 8th January 2008 Comments Coping with confusion: Sufferer HoltWe've all experienced those embarrassing moments when someone we meet seems to know us, yet we just can't

place their face. But for some, an inability to recognise faces is more than fleeting forgetfulness. They suffer from a complex brain condition - prosopagnosia - which makes it almost impossible for them to tell faces apart, even those of close family and friends. The condition, also known as face blindness, is extremely common - as many as one in 50 people suffer from it, according to research from University College London and Harvard University. This means there are 1.5 million Britons with the condition. Unfortunately many sufferers are unaware they have the condition; as a result they suffer not only embarrassment, but may become increasingly socially isolated, simply because they cannot recognise their peers. Relationships can be hard to build. Meanwhile, even mundane activities such as watching television become impossible since they cannot keep track of characters. "Face blindness can be socially

crippling since sufferers find it difficult to connect with others and build relationships," explains Dr Brad Duchaine, a neuroscientist based at University College London and a world authority on the condition. In cases of very young sufferers it can even lead to misdiagnosis of autism or Asperger's syndrome, since the face blindness can cause them to become insular and shun social interaction as a way of coping with the confusion of being unable to recognise people they should. "I only got by socially because my two best friends at school had a distinctive appearance: one was very ginger and the other very small," says Holt, 41, a business services manager from Gloucestershire. "Fortunately I'm a friendly person and made sure I got on with everyone. But in terms of real friends I only had these two, and without them school would have been a really lonely experience. "Simple childhood things were incredibly challenging. If I played

netball and the other players didn't wear tabards revealing their position, I had no idea who anyone was and found it impossible to take part properly. "Watching a film was hard because I couldn't remember all the characters. The thing is that children are pretty accepting of strange situations but as I got older the scope for embarrassment increased significantly. "For example I used to work in a casino and one night this man kept smiling and waving at me. I thought he was flirting. "It turned out we had worked closely together for three years at my previous job. It's happened with people I used to go to school with and even former housemates. It can be so embarrassing." She adds: "At work I have even failed to recognise our chief executive, which was not only embarrassing but made me wonder what he thought of me professionally." Another sufferer, Jo Livingstone, 63, a retired college lecturer, even failed to recognise her own

husband on a set of holiday photographs. "I knew intellectually it was him because I'd taken the photograph. But he normally has a beard and on this trip he'd shaved it off. "So there was no emotional response - he appeared as a stranger. It was very disturbing and I couldn't look at those photos for years because I hated the way I couldn't connect. "I met my husband through a shared interest in climbing, and since there were so few of us on expeditions I learned to recognise him - particularly through his voice as he talked an awful lot, which I liked. "I suppose I fell in love with his personality rather than the physical appearance!" Since there is no cure, prosopagnosics have to find coping strategies, according to Dr Duchaine. "They'll look at visual clues to a person's identity plus voice, or body shape, as well as contextual information: such as places they'd expect to bump into certain people. "They also compensate

by only going out in small groups or working at home or with computers to avoid group interaction." As a lecturer, Jo Livingston learned to identify students by using seating plans on the first day of term and avoiding using names. "It helped that my subject was IT so each student was huddled round a computer with their back to me. "I was a freelance lecturer which meant I went in, taught the class and came home as opposed to being part of college life, which helped." Holt copes with her condition by being extremely friendly to everyone she meets. "I just assume I know someone when they speak to me - though I have been known to hug a stranger. "I always dressed my four children in striking clothes so that I could instantly recognise them - though of course I know their voices intimately, too. "My partner, Lyndon, is mixed race, so he has a distinctive face, which helped in the early stages of our

relationship." In a minority of cases a form of the condition, acquired prosopagnosia, can be caused by brain damage, following an accident or illness. Through tracking patients' responses while being hooked to an MRI scanner - a machine which can give detailed images of internal organs - scientists have identified that the problem lies in the part of the brain responsible for processing information. Until recently there has been no real test for the condition and diagnosis has been fairly random as there is only a handful of neuroscientists who specialise in the condition. Now Dr Duchaine and researchers at UCL and Harvard have developed a specific test for face blindness. This involves showing the patient dozens of images of cars, tools, guns, houses and landscapes, interspersed with pictures of faces, some of which intermittently recur. The patients are then asked to point out in the fastest possible time whether each image

they see is new or repeated. Prosopagnosics fail to recognise repetition among the faces in the series, even though they can manage to identify repeated pictures of other objects quite easily. Two months ago Holt was diagnosed this way after finding out about Dr Duchaine on the internet. "What prompted me was the fact that my dad, who worked as a lecturer, suffers in the same way. He struggled to recognise his students. "When I was diagnosed, and it was clear we had this inherited condition, I cried - out of relief for understanding what was wrong, and also out of shock." "Now I know there's a specific reason for my behaviour. I'm far more on my guard against doing anything that makes me look foolish or appear rude." For Jo Livingston her diagnosis was a huge relief. She now always explains to people she meets that she has a problem with her memory and that if she sees them again she may not recognise them. She also

works with teachers in a bid to help them spot children whose anti-social or isolated behaviour may be explained by prosopagnosia. "That knowledge can make all the difference," says . "I'm not waiting for a miracle cure, but knowing what you have helps you fight back." www.faceblind.org http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/healthmain.html?in_article_id=506672 & in_page_id=1774

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January 10, 2008