Upon glancing at a familiar face, it roughly takes half a second for one's brain to recognize the person by matching the person's cheeks, chin, mouth, eyes, and nose to a known identity. This usually takes place effortlessly for the majority, to the point where people do not tend to think about the phenomenon. However, a recent Harvard study has revealed that this is a luxury that not everyone has.
According to Science Alert, some individuals brave through their lives with developmental prosopagnosia. When someone has such a condition, known faces may appear unfamiliar or strangers' faces may look recognizable. Science Alert even notes that some individuals with the condition are unable to recognize themselves when they look in a mirror.
How Common Is Face Blindness?
Most projections predict that around 2% to 2.5% of the global population is dealing with this cognitive condition to some extent. However, a recent Harvard study shows that it is more prevalent than initially thought. The study was published in the Cortex journal.
Science Alert also reports that when Harvard researchers conducted several facial recognition tests on over 3,100 adult respondents across the US, they observed a cluster with poor scores.
While this depended on the specific diagnostic cut-offs, the findings revealed that the prevalence of the condition went from 0.13% to 5.42%.
According to News Medical, the researchers discovered that the severity and presentation of the condition depend on a spectrum. They also offer diagnostic suggestions when it comes to the identification of significant and mild face blindness based on DSM-5 guidelines for major and mild neurocognitive conditions.
Altogether, the researchers pinpointed 31 participants with major face blindness and 72 participants with mild face blindness. This translates to roughly 3% of the whole sample size. If translated further to a population level, this means that around 10 million Americans may be battling prosopagnosia.
Joseph DeGutis, a psychiatrist from Harvard, stresses how important this is on various levels. For one, scientists have used too strict criteria, and several individuals with facial recognition struggles may have been told that they did not have the condition. If the parameters of the conditions are loosened up, more individuals battling face blindness may be more innovative in helping themselves with facial recognition. Moreover, with milder cases present alongside more severe ones, the milder ones may not dilute the entire patient pool.
The researchers mention that the initial findings suggest that utilizing less strict criteria does not alter the nature of the condition.
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