face blindness

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16 Nov 2011, 5:19 pm

do you know of people who have face blindness who are NT? is this even possible?

i met a guy last night who is faceblind. he wasn't making eye contact during most of the conversation.

readingbetweenlines
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16 Nov 2011, 5:30 pm

I thought faceblindness was something different from not making eye contact, or are you saying you think he isn't NT?

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RandomNickname
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16 Nov 2011, 5:43 pm

Face blindness is when you don't recognise faces..

And yes there are NTs with it -> prosopagnosia

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guywithAS
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16 Nov 2011, 8:49 pm

RandomNickname wrote:

Face blindness is when you don't recognise faces..

And yes there are NTs with it -> prosopagnosia

are you sure?

this quote says there may not be:

"Some researchers even suggest that prosopagnosia may be essential
symptom in autistic spectrum disorder, perhaps a specific subgroup of
Asperger syndrome."

http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/autism_world/96900

SuperTrouper
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16 Nov 2011, 9:54 pm

Yes, typical people can have prosoprog... damned if I can spell it, and I'm good speller. Thing is that I don't know how to SAY it, so I have nothing to base the spelling from. But we all know what we're talking about.

Your quote doesn't mean what you want it to mean. It's saying it's possible that all people with ASD have face blindness... not that all people with face blindness have ASD.

Verdandi
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16 Nov 2011, 10:04 pm

I don't have the link now, but the most detailed and helpful description I've ever read of prosopagnosia was written by someone who was not autistic.

Sparhawke
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17 Nov 2011, 5:09 am

It is basically the same thing as when you lose your keys, you can see them in the drawer or on the mantelpiece but your eyes scan right over them because they are not used to seeing them there, exactly like face blindness, I can talk to someone one week and the week after completely forget who they are if they are taken out of the initial environment

I don't think it is so serious as forgetting what you look like or anything that drastic, but not being able to recognise people when taken out of context, and yes I do this sometimes myself and forget who people are when passing on the street unless I know them really well

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guywithAS
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17 Nov 2011, 7:48 pm

it turns out there are two types of prosopagnosia - developmental and acquired.

developmental means you grew up with it, and acquired means you got it later in life.

i'm willing to bet the NT's with prosopagnosia are the acquired cases.

and 100% of those with developmental prosopagnosia are on the autism spectrum.

anyone have any links that can disprove this theory?

SuperTrouper
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17 Nov 2011, 8:21 pm

https://www.faceblind.org/research/

Scroll down a bit. There are many reasons for developmental prosopagnosia, including genetics, early brain damage, and vision issues.

guywithAS
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18 Nov 2011, 4:11 am

SuperTrouper wrote:

https://www.faceblind.org/research/

Scroll down a bit. There are many reasons for developmental prosopagnosia, including genetics, early brain damage, and vision issues.

thanks, thats helpful.

it seems shocking to me that this isn't better understood. aside from coming up with solutions, it seems like a condition like this is very helpful for understanding a host of other conditions.

meanwhile the drug companies are focused on making the next viagra pill

dogslife
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18 Nov 2011, 1:37 pm

Is it possible to have face-blind problems but not, for example, be completely unable to recognize family/friends? I definitely have issues remembering/recognizing faces, but it's not to the point where I won't be able to to tell who my mom is.

Example of how it affects me - I have a coworker who sits a few feet away from me at work. I see her 5 days a week. I recently saw her outside of work, and I only had the faintest idea that it was her - the only way I was able to have more of a solid idea was looking at her shoes, which I was able to better recognize than her face. Part of this is surely the fact that I have trouble with eye contact and thus don't look at peoples' faces as much, but it can't all be attributed to that when it's someone I'm around for 40 hours/week.

guywithAS
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18 Nov 2011, 3:25 pm

dogslife wrote:

i would guess being face blind is like being on the spectrum and there are degrees of it.

think about the culmulative total time you spend looking at people's faces.. firstly you need to spend enough time learning faces overall, then enough time looking at her face.

from my limited experience with face blindness, i'd suspect you don't do either.

btw, can you force yourself to make eye contact? what if you believed not enough eye contact was both the cause of your face blindness and your autism-- could you force yourself then to make eye contact? or is there a specific reason why you can't?

CambridgeMAsspie
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18 Nov 2011, 8:14 pm

dogslife wrote:

I'm with you on that one! And, boy, can it be embarassing!

dogslife
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18 Nov 2011, 8:56 pm

guywithAS wrote:

dogslife wrote:

Interesting, thanks for the input!

Yeah, I can (and often do) force myself to make eye contact. It feels unpleasant, but I do it regularly to avoid coming across as rude/shady.

guywithAS
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19 Nov 2011, 1:06 am

dogslife wrote:

Yeah, I can (and often do) force myself to make eye contact. It feels unpleasant, but I do it regularly to avoid coming across as rude/shady.

if you had to make as much eye contact as NTs do -- or even more, to make up for lost time, could you do it and still maintain natural conversations?

what if you practice, can you get yourself to increase it?

or is it overall too hard and you need to just settle for occaisional eye contact so you don't come across as rude/shady?

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