Face Blindness: When everyone is a stranger

Lesley Stahl: Yeah.

Jo Livingston: It made me realize, "How many times have I done this?"

Lesley Stahl: Right. How many friends have you offended? How many people aren't talking to you and you don't know why?

Jo Livingston: And we'll never know.

Oliver Sacks: People do think you may be snubbing them or stupid, or mad, or inattentive. That's why it's so important to recognize what one has. And to admit it.

Which is exactly what Sacks himself has just done -- written about the fact that he too is face blind.

[Oliver Sacks: I have had difficulty recognizing faces for as long as I can remember. My problem extends not only to my nearest and dearest, but also to myself. ]

Oliver Sacks: I've sometimes had the experience of apologizing to someone, and realizing it's a mirror.

Lesley Stahl: No.

Oliver Sacks: I have indeed.

Lesley Stahl: No. Because you didn't know it was you?

Oliver Sacks: I could see that it was a large, clumsy man with a beard. Now, I've now found a way of dealing with this. I have one special feature. I have rather large ears. If the large, clumsy man with a beard has extra large ears, it's probably me.

Lesley Stahl: I shouldn't be smiling, but it's funny.

Oliver Sacks: Well, it is. I mean, these things are both comic and serious.

And, surprisingly common. Recent studies show as many as 1 in 50 people may be face blind. And the search is on for clues inside their brains. We'll show you what the research is finding, plus, would you believe, super-recognizers...

Jennifer Jarett: I would say Mike Wallace.

Lesley Stahl: That is Mike Wallace!

...who never forget a face...

Jennifer Jarett: I don't even know how to get rid of people.

...when we come back.

No one knows what causes lifelong face blindness. It was discovered so recently, scientists are just beginning to unravel its secrets. And some of the clues are coming from people who once had normal face recognition, but lost it after suffering damage to part of the brain. And in an interesting twist, those people are also offering insight into the way the rest of us recognize faces. Imagine waking up after a trauma and not being able to recognize the people closest to you -- that's what happened to Colleen Castaldo.

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[vanax]

Perhaps the article mentioned on p.5 or in subsequent pages, but it seems to me that there should be an Apple app for that, or an Apple developer could make use of the iPad or iPhone camera to develop a racial recognition app just as there's an app for bar code.

[golforme]

I read the transcript of the show. I have face-blindness, but not as severe as some of the folks in the show. We have moved a lot and I get very anxious about recognizing people I've met when I see them again. I usually wait for "clues"...but seeing people out of context is especially hard...ie someone from my golf club at the grocery store. Someone asked about watching movies...that is really hard, as every time the characters change clothes, I find myself asking if they are the same person. It is a big relief to find out that you arent the only one who has this! Here is a site with lots of information: http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Prosopagnosia I wish the link to the stones example worked, because it really does a good job of explaining what it is like to see people out of context.

[Paganaidd]

We can't unconciously remember faces. In my dreams people all look pretty much alike, unless they have some distinguishing feature...Just like I remember them in real life.

[skeptically]

Actually, that's not true of everyone. In my dreams for example, I distinctly see the faces of my parents, gone for many a decade. With my spouse, it's particularly lovely because we always seem to be as young as Adam & Eve! There are degrees of visualization from one person to another as with every other skill.

[lindakburns5]

Thank you so much for running this story. My 22 year old son suffers from this. He was born with hydrocephalus and had a lot of damage on the temporal lobe.

My son is in a rock band and had even written a song about this, because of how it affects his daily life.

Your story really helped us as a family understand what it is like for Rusty. It is very sad.

[akplnmj]

We are frequently directionally challenged-those processing areas are close together in the brain. I am otherwise of well above average intelligence and have an impressively good memory.

[Windymillz]

Didn't 60 Minutes do a segment a few years ago about either politicians (or shysters--I can't remember which) that used "super-recognizers?" The super-recognizer working with the politician or shyster would tell them the name of the person who was standing in front of them, and clandestinely say something like, "This person donated a lot of money to your campaign," or something like that. Then the politician would say "Hello!" as if he remembered the person.

[nikkib]

I too have known I was suffering from a "facial recognition" problem for several years and the coverage on Sixty Minutes clarified all for me. The problem began when I fell, hitting the side of my head on a cobblestone street, unconscious for several hours while under Emergency hospital care. I own a shop and suddenly could no longer recognize regular customers. If I ran into a very well known next door neighbor out of context, i.e. shopping center, I had no clue to who that person could be. It seems that this condition is no longer considered unique.
I could perhaps describe my status as mild rather than extreme. Most who know me have by now been told not to be offended should I meet them with a totally blank or confused expression.

[DJFaceblind]

I'm faceblind, and I thought you did a pretty good job of explaining the condition to NT's. (I had my NT husband watch with me, and he thought the explanation was pretty clear, too.) But I was really angry at the repetition of that little "Do you know who this is?" game, especially when that poor woman was put on the spot by not being able to recognize her daughter. You could show recognition failure once and it would make the point. I was glad that Chuck was able to say how uncomfortable that little game made him. Would you would push him out of his awesome wheelchair and then express surprise when he couldn't get up and walk? I don't think so.
Also, WHY do NT's always carry on about us not being able to recognize our children? WE CAN'T RECOGNIZE *ANYONE.* That one gentleman was right with his question about do we understand love? Prosopagnosia is/can be profoundly isolating. And, getting back to the children thing—a major function of facial recognition is to promote parent-child bonding, is it not? Suppose you're a faceblind child, your mom looks like anybody else. How much bonding occurs, and what are the consequences when you lack that? Or, as in my own case, what about being a faceblind child with a faceblind mother?
Yes, I have mistaken my own image in the mirror for another person, but it's not some stupid parlor trick for your amusement, it is a difficult and profoundly isolating disability.
Wipe that smirk off your face, Leslie Stahl—even I can see it.

[momtomadi]

I have a chld with face blindness. While I agree it was hard to watch the people struggle with the face tests, I believe it was done with the intention of showing the rest of the world the severity of the impact this has on faceblind people and their families. Even I had a lump in my throat watching the anguished faces of those on the show. There has to be sort of a "shock value" to get the typical non-faceblind community to understand the magnitude of this condition-- and raise awareness and spread compassion and empathy. The rest of the world cannot imagine these things in the faceblind unless they see it like it was presented. I was not offended by the tests the way you were-- I was simply heartbroken at seeing how my daughter is going to grow up and feel someday but is too young to be able to express right now. It made me understand her faceblindness a little better, and I truly feel that was the point of presenting the segment the way they chose to.

[skeptically]

I am not face blind but I struggle mightily with names--often even of people I know well--so I felt compassion as well as educated when I watched this.

I think their may be other cues to draw upon so far as "bonding." There's some evidence that our sense of smell recognizes those who are closely related in a way that is also related to the immune system. Statistically, people very often seek out partners who are different in this immunological sense. Diversity seems to have survival value. But we're entirely UNAWARE that this is going on.

I can certainly remember my mother's favorite soap--imported from Spain--and I haven't smelled it in decades. Perhaps a gift of an expensive and not so common perfume that is pleasing to you both could offer another cue, a common touchstone for you both, like matching necklaces?

And then again, there is the gift of the voice. My children have often made recordings for me, and I have no trouble identifying them at any age, both speaking and singing, which makes for sweet memories.

[USDiane]

As the parent of someone with face blindness, this condition can be a total nightmare. My daughter can not recognize any faces, including mine. So she tries to figure out who someone is by general body shape and hair color. Needless to say, she's wrong more often than she is right. Once someone speaks she can tell who they are if the voice is a unique one, but since she wears hearing aides, this is not always very reliable. So imagine the safety issues involved! Its almost impossible for her to keep friends since they don't understand when she walks right past them without acknowledging them. And I can't tell you how many times she came home from school all upset because her brother passed her in the hall without saying hello, when in realiity, it wasn't her brother at all but some stranger with similar hair color and body shape. Believe me, this is no laughing matter and creates a great deal of stress for everyone involved!

[momtomadi]

Our daughters sound very similar. Mine is 12! I worry about her safey every.single.day!

[50wells]

I have this problem and I got really scared after my daughter dropped by one day and I didn't know who she was.I made a doctors appointment and spent five in testing and was told I should talk to someone in the psychiatry dept, because they couldn't find anything wrong with me.I knew I wasn't crazy and said no thank you.I was thrilled when my husband told me about 60 min. and the special and watched it, I was so happy to find out I am not alone in this and I can put a name to it. I do have a good ear for voices so if someone speaks to me I can usually put a name to the voice.