Post-Smile

What is Face Blindness?

Jul 11, 2025, 10:48 AM by UTMB Pediatrics

 

Post-Smile

Prosopagnosia.  So what is this diagnosis except a possible answer on Jeopardy?  Prosopagnosia is a rare neurological disorder when the individual cannot recognize faces.  It is also known as face blindness or facial agnosia.  It comes from the Greek words for “face” and “lack of knowledge”.  Depending upon the degree of impairment, some people may have problems with recognizing a familiar face; other may be unable to tell the difference between unknown faces; others may not be able to tell a face from a vase and others may not be able 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 or damage to the right fusiform gyrus, a fold in the brain that appears to coordinate the neural system that control facial perception and memory.  Some diagnosed cases are congenital, running in families, indicating a possible genetic mutation or deletion.  Some degree of prosopagnosia is often present in children with autism.
A common symptom of children in the autistic spectrum is “they do not look you in the eye”.  Imagine that if a child cannot recognize a face, even of his mother, why would he tend to look at her? At any face?  It is part of why some children with Autistic Spectrum have impaired social development.  They may have difficulty reading emotions on people’s faces or age and gender or to follow characters and plots on TV programs.
Most babies start to recognize their mother’s face surprisingly early.  We know they can recognize their mother’s voice and even pick out their native language.  They can also recognize their mother’s scent. Visual recognition of familiar faces, especially their mother’s, develops in the first few months.  Around 2-3 months babies show clear signs of recognition of their mother by smiling or gazing longer at their face. A newborn’s vision is still developing so they may show preference to their mother’s face because it is in their visual range (8-12 inches).
By 4-7 months babies develop a sense of “object permanence”, understanding that things and people exist even when out of sight.  This can lead to increase attachment and recognition of familiar faces and of toys.  This can also lead to the awareness of unfamiliar faces and the awareness of strangers.  By 9 months they may have a strong attachment for favorite toys and objects and a strong objection to unfamiliar people.
Be able to recognize their own face is not a developed skill until between 15-18 months. Imagine the miracle of looking in a mirror and recognizing that what you are seeing is yourself.
Getting up close helps the baby see your face and early on that is the distance they see well.  Having a child-safe mirror in front of the baby during tummy time or on the stroller is fun even if the baby doesn’t know who it is.  Playing peekaboo can be fun even as early as 3 months. 

By Sally Robinson, MD Clinical Professor

Keeping Kids Healthy
Published 07/24



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