Forgetting Faces, T. Grueter
Scientific American Mind
, 2007
Student Reading Guide
1.
What percentage of the population has prosopagnosia?
Why is prosopagnosia often underdiagnosed/unrecognized in people who
have the condition?
2.
Imagine you had to describe to a friend or family member what it might be
like to have prosopagnosia.
What are some of the “socially and professionally crippling” effects of being
unable to recognize faces?
3.
Patients with prosopagnosia tend to have damage to which
brain areas?
4.
Joachim Bodamer coined the term “prosopagnosia.”
Who were his patients, and what did Dr. Bodamer observe?
NOTE: Cases of prosopagnosia that are the result of stroke or brain injury are
known as “acquired prosopagnosia.”
5.
The author describes some of his research on pp. 71-72, in which he and his
colleagues investigated the prevalence of prosopagnosia in the general
population.
a.
How many students did they survey?
b.
What percentage of his participants were found have prosopagnosia?
c.
Of those, how many had family members who also had prosopagnosia?
NOTE: These cases of prosopagnosia, in which people are born with
prosopagnosia, are known as “congenital prosopagnosia.”
6.
How is the behavior of children and babies affected by prosopagnosia?
7.
What are some of the methods that people with prosopagnosia use to
recognize people?
