Jim Cooke lives in New York State. He has normal eyesight, but he cannot recognize his own face in the mirror. He has to shave by feeling his way around his features. In 1995, then aged forty-eight, Jim went in for a brain operation. When he came round, he realized something was wrong. It took him several days to figure out that he could not see faces properly any more. Jim was now suffering from prosopagnosia. This term is derived from prosopon (‘face’) and agnosia (‘lack of knowledge’), and refers to a disorder in which people can see most things normally, but when they look at a face they see only a canvas of features that do not form a meaningful image. They cannot recognize the face as someone familiar.
You can be born with this rare illness, but more commonly it occurs as the result of adult brain damage. While the brain as a whole is involved with most perceptual functions, there is a tiny, specialized section of the brain that is intimately involved with the recognizing of faces. It is called the fusiform. In a scanner it lights up with electrical activity whenever a person looks at a face. If the fusiform gets damaged we cannot recognize the face as a face – and Jim’s fusiform area was damaged during the operation.
Jim explains that when he sees faces: ‘It’s almost as if everyone’s wearing stocking- masks.’ It is disturbing for Jim if people recognize and approach him in the street, since he has no way of placing them or guessing who they are. Most of us forget the odd name or face, but Jim can’t see faces at all. Most distressing for Jim is the fact that he cannot respond to the faces of his own children. When he goes to meet his twenty-year-old son Tommy, or his eighteen-year-old daughter Cindy, he cannot recognize them. Tom and Cindy have learnt to cope with their father’s illness. They make sure that they say ‘Hi Dad’ or identify themselves every time they approach him.
Prosopagnosics evolve complex strategies to deal with their illness. They become expert in differentiating voices and clothing, so as not to give away their problems. But for anyone, this is an enormously debilitating illness.
Jim Cooke says that: ‘When I look in a mirror, I’m not there. I’ll see items on the wall behind me, but a blank in the middle…’ - From The Human Face, Brian Bates with John Cleese
You can be born with this rare illness, but more commonly it occurs as the result of adult brain damage. While the brain as a whole is involved with most perceptual functions, there is a tiny, specialized section of the brain that is intimately involved with the recognizing of faces. It is called the fusiform. In a scanner it lights up with electrical activity whenever a person looks at a face. If the fusiform gets damaged we cannot recognize the face as a face – and Jim’s fusiform area was damaged during the operation.
Jim explains that when he sees faces: ‘It’s almost as if everyone’s wearing stocking- masks.’ It is disturbing for Jim if people recognize and approach him in the street, since he has no way of placing them or guessing who they are. Most of us forget the odd name or face, but Jim can’t see faces at all. Most distressing for Jim is the fact that he cannot respond to the faces of his own children. When he goes to meet his twenty-year-old son Tommy, or his eighteen-year-old daughter Cindy, he cannot recognize them. Tom and Cindy have learnt to cope with their father’s illness. They make sure that they say ‘Hi Dad’ or identify themselves every time they approach him.
Prosopagnosics evolve complex strategies to deal with their illness. They become expert in differentiating voices and clothing, so as not to give away their problems. But for anyone, this is an enormously debilitating illness.
Jim Cooke says that: ‘When I look in a mirror, I’m not there. I’ll see items on the wall behind me, but a blank in the middle…’ - From The Human Face, Brian Bates with John Cleese
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