Talk of The Villages Florida - View Single Post - Facial Blindness
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Old 08-06-2012, 11:31 AM
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Originally Posted by dillywho View Post
Did any of you happen to see 60 Minutes last night about Facial Blindness? Very interesting. It is just now being recognized by the medical community.

For those of you who didn't, it was about people, who for some neurological disorder (which has not been pinpointed, yet), cannot recognize anyone's face. One guy cannot even recognize his own face in the mirror at times. He has to go feature by feature and when he sees that the face has really big ears on the sides, he then knows it's him. People with this disorder can't even recognize their own children or spouses except by other means such as voice, how they walk, etc. They said that this would also explain why normal people often feel slighted (feel that they have been "high-hatted") or think that someone is being snobbish when they don't speak to them.

On the other hand, they also presented some who have just the opposite problem (if you can call it a problem sometimes) of remembering every face they have ever seen and can even recognize them from their childhood photos.

All if all, a very fascinating program. If you have access to online replays, I think you will find it very interesting.
Did they say at what age it typically starts? Could it be an early sign of dementia? Alzheimer's? My father lost his sense of smell about 20+ years before he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Loss of balance can be an early sign of dementia too. I suppose it can be other things as well because everything we sense has a place in the brain where it registers. One of the first things that made me think my father needed to see a doctor was when he didn't recognize my mother working in the yard. He asked me, "who's that?"

I know someone who is very intelligent but seems NOT to be able to "read" facial expressions. I discovered it by accident. I was getting very bored with the conversation one day, to say the least. And I wondered, "doesn't this person realize I'm not interested in their rambling on and on?" So I decided to put on my most bored look and started glancing out the window. And to my surprise it had no effect whatsoever.

I think I have golf cart and car blindness. When I go for walks I often have difficulty recognizing neighbors as they approach in their vehicles. By the time I realize who it is, it's too late to wave. And they probably wonder why I ignore them. It's a good way to upset friendly neighbors. But a lot of the cars and carts look the same to me.