Face Blindness (Prosopagnosia)
Nicole Wright, CHT, NLPP
Accounting & Tax with Newsweek JP cover. Crime & Culture Journalist.
Early in my career while working with #AutisticYouth, one of the differences behaviorally, which has roots in #genetics, #parenting, #early-intervention, and personality preferences, I learned that #typical brained individuals, spend 80% of the time looking at #faces, and 20% on other details in the scene.
While #atypical, specifically #autismspectrumdisorder, is reverse. 80% looking at the details in the surroundings, and 20% looking at faces.
This means big things with relationships, social experiences, perceived empathy.
For example, many ASD I’ve met are highly empathetic & intellectual. They feel deeply, and may not “get” why humans react in an "emotional" (instead of "logical" or template) way. (If you teach ASD about observing faces, body language, feeling charts, and more about emotions, like a scientist, they'll start to "get-it".)
One way to help these individuals get to the “light bulb” feeling, is to explain it in a way they understand, with the right details for them.
Another way, is to ask them to look at faces, teach about micro-expressions (in some way create a curiosity).
Another proven method, is early-intervention.
ASD having a genetic predisposition, early childhood, or personality preference to spend 80% on details, not faces, is #different from #prosopagnosia, or face blindness.
If face blindness is not acquired from brain injury or lesions, it can be an attribute that runs in families.
If Brad Pitt has struggled his entire life, it may mean, w/his high IQ, he is #2e. Gifted Intelligence w/a disability to be overcome. 2e are truly remarkable for what they’re able to accomplish, in the face of their difficulties, which can be “invisible” to the outside eye.
From NYT:
“People with prosopagnosia tend to fall into two categories: those who are born with the condition, and those who acquire it later on in life.
"Research suggests that congenital, or lifelong, prosopagnosia is less common, although estimates show that as many as one in every 50 people may struggle with some lifelong form of the condition, and scientists theorize that it may run in families.
"“There doesn’t seem to be any obvious structural abnormality” in the brain for those born with the condition, said Dr. Andrey Stojic, director of general neurology at the Cleveland Clinic.
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"Because there aren’t clear brain lesions in people with congenital prosopagnosia, scientists aren’t sure what causes it.
"People who acquire prosopagnosia later in life, by contrast, may have lesions in the brain as a result of a head injury or trauma. People can also acquire the condition after strokes or as they develop Alzheimer’s disease, Dr. Bonakdarpour said.”
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