想象一下，看到自己在镜子里，但当你转身离开时却无法形容你的脸。想象一下，从学校接你的女 儿，只是通过她的声音认出她，或者因为你记得她那天穿的衣服。如果你觉得这些情况很熟悉，你可能会患有症状。 Prosopagnosia或面部失明是一种认知障碍，其特征是无法识别面孔，包括自己的面孔。虽然智力和其他视觉处理通常不受影响，但是一些面部失明的人也难以识别动物，区分物体（例如，汽车）和导航。除了不识别或记住面部外，患有prosopagnosia的人可能难以识别表达并识别年龄和性别。一些患有prosopagnosia的人使用策略和技术来弥补面部失明。它们在日常生活中正常运作。其他人则有更艰难的时间，经历焦虑，抑郁和对社交场合的恐惧。面部失明可能会导致人际关系和工作场所出现问题。有两种主要类型的prosopagnosia。获得性prosopagnosia是由枕颞叶（脑）损伤引起的，这可能是由于损伤，一氧化碳中毒，动脉梗塞，出血，脑炎，帕金森病，阿尔茨海默病或肿瘤引起的。梭形回，下枕区或前颞叶皮层的病变会影响对面部的反应。大脑右侧的损伤更可能影响熟悉的面部识别。患有获得性prosopagnosia的人失去识别面部的能力。获得性prosopagnosia是非常罕见的（取决于受伤的类型）可能会解决。另一种主要的面部失明类型是先天性或发育性的面部失调症。这种形式的面部失明更为常见，影响了美国人口的2.5％。这种疾病的根本原因尚不清楚，但似乎确实存在于家庭中。虽然其他疾病可能伴随着面部失明（例如自闭症，非语言学习障碍），但它不需要与任何其他疾病相关联。患有先天性先兆症的人从未充分发展识别面部的能力。
Imagine seeing yourself in the mirror, yet being unable to describe your face when you turn away. Imagine picking up your daughter from school and only recognizing her by her voice or because you remember what she wore that day. If these situations sound familiar to you, you may have prosopagnosia. Prosopagnosia or face blindness is a cognitive disorder characterized by an inability recognize faces, including one’s own face. While intellect and other visual processing generally are unaffected, some people with face blindness also have difficulty recognizing animals, distinguishing between objects (e.g., cars), and navigating. In addition to not recognizing or remembering a face, a person with prosopagnosia may have trouble recognizing expressions and identifying age and gender. Some people with prosopagnosia use strategies and techniques to compensate for face blindness. They function normally in daily life. Others have a much harder time and experience anxiety, depression, and fear of social situations. Face blindness can cause problems in relationships and in the workplace. There are two main types of prosopagnosia. Acquired prosopagnosia is caused by occipito-temporal lobe (brain) damage, which in turn may result from an injury, carbon monoxide poisoning, artery infarction, hemorrhage, encephalitis, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, or neoplasm. Lesions in the fusiform gyrus, inferior occipital area, or anterior temporal cortex affect response to faces. Damage to the right side of the brain is more likely to affect familiar face recognition. A person with acquired prosopagnosia loses the ability to recognize faces. Acquired prosopagnosia is very rare and (depending on the type of injury) may resolve. The other main type of face blindness is congenital or developmental prosopagnosia. This form of face blindness is much more common, affecting as much as 2.5 percent of the United States population. The underlying cause of the disorder is unknown, but it does appear to run in families. While other disorders may accompany face blindness (e.g., autism, nonverbal learning disorder), it need not be connected with any other condition. A person with congenital prosopagnosia never fully develops the ability to recognize faces.