CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1 RATIONALE

Prosopagnosia is a neurological disorder characterized by the inability to recognize

faces. Prosopagnosia is also known as face blindness or facial agnosia. The term

prosopagnosia comes from the Greek words for “face” and “lack of knowledge.” Depending

upon the degree of impairment, some people with prosopagnosia may only have difficulty

recognizing a familiar face; others will be unable to discriminate between unknown faces, while

still others may not even be able to distinguish a face as being different from an object. Some

people with the disorder are unable to recognize their own face. Prosopagnosia is not related to

memory dysfunction, memory loss, impaired vision, or learning disabilities. Prosopagnosia is

thought to be the result of abnormalities, damage, or impairment in the right fusiform gyrus, a

fold in the brain that appears to coordinate the neural systems that control facial perception and

memory. Prosopagnosia can result from stroke, traumatic brain injury, or certain

neurodegenerative diseases. In some cases it is a congenital disorder, present at birth in the

absence of any brain damage. Congenital prosopagnosia appears to run in families, which

makes it likely to be the result of a genetic mutation or deletion. Some degree of prosopagnosia

is often present in children with autism and Asperger’s syndrome, and may be the cause of their

impaired social development. 

More rarely, is caused by acquired brain injury that damages occipital-temporal

or anterior temporal regions (Barton, 2008). It can have a severe impact on everyday life. Many

people with prosopagnosia are not able to recognize family members, partners or friends. They

may cope by using alternative strategies to recognize people, such as remembering the way

they walk or their hairstyle, voice or clothing. But these types of strategies do not always work –
for example, when a person with prosopagnosia meets someone in an unfamiliar location.

Prosopagnosia has two types: acquired and developmental. Acquired prosopagnosia is rare.

When someone acquires prosopagnosia after a brain injury, they'll quickly notice that they have

lost the ability to recognize people they know. Developmental prosopagnosia is where a person

has prosopagnosia without having brain damage. Developmental prosopagnosia may have a

genetic component and run in families. Many people with the condition have reported at least 1

first- degree relative, such as a parent or sibling (brother or sister), who also has problems

recognizing faces. Due to a failure to develop the requisite visual systems for identifying faces,

people with developmental prosopagnosia ('facial blindness') experience severe face

recognition difficulties. Despite normal low-level vision and intellect, these challenges occur in

the absence of brain damage. Prosopagnosia can cause a person to avoid social engagement

and develop social anxiety disorder, which is characterized by an overpowering fear of social

interactions. They might also have trouble building relationships or dealing with challenges in

their careers. Depression is a common occurrence. Through film making , we the researchers

aim to raise awareness about Prosopagnosia and to minimize the misconception about the said

disorder. We also hope to urge the general population to have a positive attitude toward people

who suffer from the prosopagnosia condition. The film will revolve around the severe impact on

everyday life and how is it like living with Prosopagnosia. Representation of psychological and

social effects and how to assist or approach the situation of people with Prosopagnosia.

Prosopagnosia can be socially crippling. Individuals with the disorder often have difficulty

recognizing family members and close friends. They often use other ways to identify people,

such as relying on voice, clothing, or unique physical attributes, but these are not as effective as

recognizing a face. Children with congenital prosopagnosia are born with the disability and have

never had a time when they could recognize faces. Greater awareness of autism, and the
autism spectrum disorders, which involve communication impairments such as prosopagnosia,

is likely to make the disorder less overlooked in the future.

1.2 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Most people occasionally have trouble recognizing faces they have seen before,

but prosopagnosia is much more severe than these everyday problems. Prosopagnosics have

difficulty knowing whether they have seen a face before, and they often have problems

recognizing faces they have encountered many times. In extreme cases, prosopagnosics have

trouble recognizing even those people that they spend the most time with such as their spouse

and children. It is important to note that prosopagnosia is defined by problems recognizing

faces, not recalling names.In cases of developmental prosopagnosia (sometimes

called congenital prosopagnosia), face recognition problems are present early in life and are

caused by neurodevelopmental impairments that impact face processing mechanisms. Face

recognition ability varies substantially in people with normal abilities; some people are really

good, others are poor, and most people are somewhere between these extremes.

A person with prosopagnosia may avoid social interaction and develop social anxiety

disorder, an overwhelming fear of social situations. They may also have difficulty forming

relationships or experience problems with their career. Feelings of depression are common.

Some people with prosopagnosia cannot recognize certain facial expressions, judge a person's

age or gender, or follow a person's gaze. Others may not even recognize their own face in the

mirror or in photos. Someone with prosopagnosia may worry that they appear rude or not

interested when they fail to recognize a person.

There are 2 types of prosopagnosia:

 developmental prosopagnosia – where a person has prosopagnosia without having brain

damage

 acquired prosopagnosia – where a person develops prosopagnosia after brain damage,

often following a stroke or head injury

In the past, most cases of prosopagnosia were thought to occur after a brain injury

(acquired prosopagnosia). But research has found that many more people have prosopagnosia

without having brain damage (developmental prosopagnosia) than was first thought.

Developmental prosopagnosia, several studies have indicated that as many as 1 in

50 people may have developmental prosopagnosia, which equates to about 1.5 million people

in the UK. Most people with developmental prosopagnosia simply fail to develop the ability to

recognize faces. Someone born with the condition may not realize they have a

problem .Developmental prosopagnosia may have a genetic component and run in families.

Many people with the condition have reported at least 1 first-degree relative, such as a parent or

sibling (brother or sister), who also has problems recognising faces. While Acquired

prosopagnosia, is rare, when someone acquires prosopagnosia after a brain injury, they'll

quickly notice that they have lost the ability to recognize people they know. But if prosopagnosia

occurs after brain damage in early childhood, before the child has fully developed the ability to

recognize faces, they may grow up not realising they're not able to recognize faces as well as

other people can.

1.3 STATEMENT OF THE OBJECTIVE

The following objectives have been set in order to fulfill this study:

-To know what could be the things that might do to cope with Prosopagnosia.

   - To identify what symptoms occurred when you have Prosopagnosia.

   - To know how prosopagnosia can be treat.

   - Focuses on helping people with prosopagnosia condition.

1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This research is made with the aim to provide crucial information and knowledge

based on the chosen topic.

Parents- The results of the study will help the parents to give right guidance so they can give

more knowledge about to this topic.

Medical professionals- This research will have the medical professionals guide to learn the

students and teachers about this.

The Researchers -The research will equip them with sufficient knowledge about the subject

that they may share with their peers, professors, school staff, and the general public.

Future Reseachers -The study will serve as a good reference for other academics who wish to

conduct more research into how face blindness has a significant impact on society.
1.5 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Bruc

e and Young’s theoretical framework was proposed in response to experimental work (e.g.,

Bruce, 1986) and diary studies using typical participants, which examined the order of these

functional stages and the types of errors that typically are (or are not) made in face recognition

(Young, Hay, & Ellis, 1985). Importantly, the model has also been used to localise face-

processing impairments in individuals with acquired prosopagnosia (e.g., Young, Hellawell, & de

Haan, 1988). Specifically, the model proposes that an initial stage of early visual analysis is

followed by “structural encoding”, representations are converted into viewpoint-independent

representations. For instance, one might conclude that a patient presenting with deficits in both

the perception and recognition of faces has a deficit at the level of structural encoding; whereas

a patient with apparently normal face perception yet deficits in identity recognition has a deficit

at latter stages of the framework. While view-centred representations can be used to

independently process some aspects of facial information (e.g., expression or lip speech), the

viewpoint independent representations are required for identity recognition. These

representations are compared to all stored representations of familiar faces in the face

recognition units (FRUs), and, if a match is achieved, the relevant person identity node (PIN)

provides access to semantic and biographical information that is known about that person.

Finally, the name of the person is obtained. In addition, some individuals with prosopagnosia

appear to have cross-modal impairments at the level of semantics, whereby the face-processing

system itself is largely unaffected, but familiar face recognition is disrupted by a person-specific

or more generalized semantic deficit. Bruce and Young’s model is nevertheless an important

theoretical framework that has frequently been used to localize face-processing impairments,

and, less often, to subsequently inform intervention strategy (e.g., de Haan, Young, &

Newcombe, 1991; Ellis & Young, 1988).