Facial Agnosia | A Moment of Science | PBS

This time on a moment of science. Haven't we met? Of science. You notice the neighborhood kids are playing baseball outside again? Kids will be kids. I think they should be inside. Well, I'm going to bed. Did you say something? Sleep well? Want some? French roast. Creepy, huh? It seems our unfortunate friend here is suffering from a neurological disorder called facial agnosia. Facial agnosia typically occurs to people who have received damage to the right hemisphere of the brain due to injury or stroke. Or you could have some orange juice? Though its effects would surely not look like this. Facial agnosia makes it so that those who suffer from it lose the ability to recognize even the most familiar faces. In severe cases, a person with facial agnosia wouldn't even be able to recognize herself. Visual ability itself is not damaged. And the person with facial agnosia can still recognize anything else. Except a face. Indeed, they can still describe faces very accurately. But only in the way one describes an object. She has big eyes. She has a small nose. She has an imprint of a baseball on her forehead. But never, hey, that's a picture of me! Facial agnosia strongly suggests the existence of a mechanism in the brain devoted specifically to recognizing individuals we've seen before. A mechanism thought to exist in many other animals, and even some insects. I'm Mandy Strife, and this has been a Moment of Science. Science? For more interesting science facts, visit our website at amomentofscience.org.