Prosopagnosia
What is it?
Prosopagnosia is a condition where your brain can’t recognize faces or facial expressions in spite of having normal vision. This can make it hard for you to recognize the faces of familiar coworkers, friends or even close loved ones.
Additional names
This group contains additional names:
- Face Blindness
Signs & symptoms
There are two forms of prosopagnosia, and the symptoms depend on the form. The two forms are apperceptive and associative:
* Apperceptive prosopagnosia- This is when you can’t recognize a person’s facial expressions or other non-verbal cues.
* Associative prosopagnosia- This form is when you can’t recognize a person’s face even if you’re familiar with them. You can still recognize them by other means like their voice or the sound of how they walk.
Diagnosis
Diagnosing prosopagnosia takes a combination of a neurological exam, asking questions about your history, diagnostic imaging and testing.
The neurological exam and tests will likely include:
* Sensory tests
* Cognitive and mental status tests
* Memory tests
* Face recognition tests
* Object recognition tests
Treatment
These treatments address the underlying problem that caused your prosopagnosia. They may or may not help your prosopagnosia itself. The possible treatments include, but aren’t limited to, the following:
* Medications- These range from antibiotics for infections to anti-dementia medications.
* Surgery- Prosopagnosia can happen when tumors press on certain areas of your brain. Removing those tumors with surgery, when possible, can alleviate pressure on your brain and hopefully let it function normally.
☝️ This is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Please consult with your physician before making any medical decision.
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Source of Information - We analyze big data of more than 23 million patients de-identified medical records from the following sources:
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