Actor Brad Pitt recently revealed that he had prosopagnosia, a rare neurological condition also known as “facial blindness,” in an interview. Dani Blum describes the disorder’s signs, underlying causes, and available treatments in a article.
the symptoms of prosopagnosia.
Borna Bonakdarpour, a behavioral neurologist at Northwestern Medicine, claims that face blindness, not color blindness or general visual impairment, is the main symptom of prosopagnosia.
There is no connection between the condition and intellectual challenges, visual problems, or memory loss, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
According to Blum, it’s not the same as forgetting or occasionally having trouble finding the appropriate term.
The severity of prosopagnosia can vary from person to person. For example, it may be difficult for some people to recognize the face of a close friend or relative, while it may be difficult for others to recognize their own reflection. The ability to distinguish faces from objects may also be lacking for some people.
Notably, some evidence indicates that people with prosopagnosia may experience chronic anxiety or depression due to the isolation and fear that are typically associated with the condition.
Blum notes that some people avoid talking to family members and other close friends out of concern that they won’t be able to recognize or acknowledge them in a meaningful way. She adds that when one has prosopagnosia, navigating basic social interactions can be difficult.
Pitt claimed in a recent interview that he has struggled with face recognition for years despite never having been officially diagnosed with prosopagnosia.
In fact, Pitt admitted in a 2013 interview that he frequently felt the need to put himself in a distance because it was so difficult for him to recognize people’s faces. He said, “That’s why I stay at home.”.
What is the cause of the issue?
The majority of those who are diagnosed with prosopagnosia fall into one of these two categories. Prosopagnosia can be either a genetic issue or an acquired one.
According to estimates, up to one in every 50 people may struggle with the illness at some point in their lives, and scientists theorize that it may run in families. Congenital prosopagnosia, or lifelong prosopagnosia, is less common, according to research, says Blum.
According to Andrey Stojic, director of general neurology at the Cleveland Clinic, children who are born with the condition “don’t seem to have any evident structural abnormalities” in the brain. Notably, doctors are uncertain of the exact cause of congenital prosopagnosia because patients with the condition don’t appear to have any obvious brain abnormalities.
However, people who develop prosopagnosia later in life may have brain abnormalities brought on by a traumatic event or head injury. According to Bonakdarpour, prosopagnosia can also occur after a stroke or when a person has Alzheimer’s disease.
What therapies are available for prosopagnosia?
Bonakdarpour asserts that prosopagnosia is currently incurable. But there is a way to fix the problem. Those who have the condition frequently make an effort to distinguish between people by focusing on physical characteristics like voice, stride, or hair color.
Using a battery of tests that assess a person’s memory and facial recognition skills, neurologists frequently make the diagnosis. In order to ensure that a patient’s facial blindness is not a sign of a more serious degenerative neurological illness, doctors frequently take great care during this procedure, according to Blum.
It’s interesting to note that many patients with the condition, like Pitt, won’t get a formal diagnosis. Many of the difficulties Stojic is citing and the issues he is having, in his opinion, are common occurrences for people.
He continued, “It might be pretty crippling for some, and hard to understand for others.
