Can't remember anyone's face

If there are people who cannot forget the face of the person they just met, there are those who suffer from not recognizing the face of a relative, even when looking at a mirror, they do not know the mirror image is me They suffer from a symptom called 'face blindness' (Prosopagnosia).

Who are you? Who am I?

In an interview in late May 2013, Hollywood movie star Brad Pitt admitted he was incapable of identifying and remembering others after only a few visits. The actor said: 'A lot of people hate me because they think I don't respect them. I swear to God, for the whole year I have to say 'Where did we meet?' This only makes things worse and makes people more vulnerable. When they recalled the situation, I said, 'Thank you for helping me.' However, they feel more angry. They said, I'm a proud, proud person. Honestly, I couldn't catch someone's face. I am going to check on my illness. "

Brad Pitt himself thought that he was suffering from Prosopagnosia or Face blindness syndrome . Poor memory ability has seriously affected his social life. He avoided contact with people, just wanted to stay home.

Blindness is a disease caused by injury to the right brain area, aging, genetics or sometimes gene disorders, many people suffer.

Heather Sellers, an English teacher at Hope High School in Holland (Michigan), never remembers the face of a recently introduced grandmother, even if she talks to them for hours. The simple problem was that she could not recognize her face just by looking straight into her face. She also likes to read books or watch movies like everyone else, but cannot follow through a movie, from a movie to a series of episodes in the usual way, because she cannot distinguish the faces of each actress. tablets. In the time of gatherings to eat and drink with friends and colleagues, apparently before that, Sellers had planned together, but when they met, she saw them as strangers. For her, they have the same face. Although it is easy to recall the name of the person or phone number given, but it is clear who they are in the photo shoot, she is completely helpless. Fortunately, when standing on the podium, Sellers still plays a role as a good English teacher because identifying each student based on the clothes, hairstyle, and badges they wear.

As a child, while shopping with his mom at a grocery store near his home, Sellers accidentally caused trouble. Sellers lost his mother. She cried while looking for her mother. But ironically, she could not remember the face of the mother. Seeing anyone, Sellers also clasped his hands, asked very sympathetically: 'Are you my mother?' Most people were surprised, puzzled by the question of this 10-year-old girl. When the manager of this store - a neighbor with the Heather family - found the mother of Sellers. Mother stood in front of her, calling her constantly, but Sellers had a strange reaction. She stood in a dumb, suspicious manner, asking: 'Are you my mother?' , Sellers did not recognize his mother. Both mother and daughter hugged each other .

In high school, Sellers was self-contained. She did not know how to speak properly, because she could not remember who this person was? Who is that person? Sellers only knew how to be alone, and in his mind was always questioned: 'Who are you?' . No one understood her suffering.

By the time he got married, many times, Sellers could not recognize who was his husband. Every day when she came home from work, she was startled because there was a strange man in the house and just sighed 'it was my husband' after observing what he was wearing. Going to school to pick up 2 boys, Sellers can't remember their faces. The secret way, she shouted to call her in front of the school to everyone's surprise.

Even myself, Sellers did not realize: 'I was in an elevator, there were people around me. When a woman moves and exits the elevator. It took a while for me to realize that the woman was me " - Sellers sadly said.

At 36, Sellers happened to see the phrase "blind face" in a psychology textbook. Until this time, Sellers realized what scary was happening to me. 'For me, all faces are human faces, with very common points. They are nothing special to distinguish. Each face can be small or big, old or young, but all are the same '.

Defects cause many obstacles

Oliver Sacks - a famous neurologist - is a typical Prosopagnosia case. He could not identify anyone, including his face in the mirror. Oliver Sacks mostly recognizes relatives and friends based on their voices. In 1985, he published the book "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" (The man mistook his wife), helping the world know more about Prosopagnosia. A series of studies began to take place and focused primarily on explaining this strange disease.

Recently, in the first study of this symptom published in the July issue of The American Journal of Medical Genetics Part A , scientists discovered, this is a congenital disease, or a Developmental disorder form. The study also showed that the number of people with facial blindness is greater than expected. Of the 689 randomly selected students in Munster, Germany to participate in the experiment, up to 2.47% suffered from this disease.

Science is using brain imaging techniques to study blindness, to see which parts of the brain are most active when we identify others. Dr. Bradley Duchaine and Harvard University Psychology Professor Ken Nakayama have published their work on blindness in the July issue of Current Opinion in Neurobiology. They also have a site that specializes in this new issue (www.faceblind.org), to invite those who suspect they have blindness to join them.

People who are sick are given the phrase 'careless, indifferent', 'postponed' forget their name when they are newly introduced, or unable to find a path to a given point. To compensate, people with blindness are able to recognize very well the facial expressions, from happiness to sadness, from anger to confusion. They can detect the smallest changes, easily identify the sex and the attractiveness, attraction of the face. In short, they are well aware of what is displayed on their faces, but do not know who it is, ie do not attach their names to their faces.

Currently, Prosopagnosia is not only a disease that is becoming more and more prevalent worldwide, but is also one of the major obstacles to many cases of criminal investigations and trials, especially in the United States. The case of Jenny - a witness in a recent murder in the United States - is a good example of Prosopagnosia. Jenny has directly witnessed a man who killed a woman and reported exactly what happened. However, the only problem that caused the search for the culprit to fail was that this single witness suddenly lost the ability to identify people. Jenny described twice with the same person she saw with completely different characteristics.

Like Jenny, another witness of a murder trial in the United States suffered from Prosopagnosia after an accident and a brain injury. Since then, this patient has often mistakenly identified strangers as his friends without knowing it.