In a recent interview, actor Brad Pitt revealed that he suffers from prosopagnosia, a rare neurological disease commonly known as ‘face blindness’. In the article, Dani Blum explains the symptoms of the disease, its main causes and treatment options.
Symptoms of prosopagnosia
The main symptom of prosopagnosia is face blindness, not color blindness or general vision impairment, according to Borna Bonakdarpour, a behavioral neurologist at Northwestern Medicine.
According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, there is no link between the condition and intellectual problems, vision problems, or memory loss.
Bloom says this is different from forgetting or sometimes having difficulty finding the right terminology. The severity of prosopagnosia can vary from person to person. For example, some people may have difficulty recognizing the faces of close friends or family members, while others may have difficulty recognizing their own appearances. In addition, some people may not be able to distinguish between faces and objects.
In particular, there is evidence that people with prosopagnosia may have persistent anxiety or depression due to the isolation and anxiety commonly associated with the condition. Bloom notes that some people fear that family or other close friends will not be able to identify with them or recognize them in a meaningful way. People with prosopagnosia can find it difficult to navigate basic social interactions, he added. In a recent interview, Pitt revealed that he’s had trouble recognizing people’s faces for years, despite never being officially diagnosed with prosopagnosia.
Pitt revealed in a 2013 interview that he has such a hard time recognizing people’s faces that he often feels the need to keep his distance. “That’s why I’m staying home,” he said.
What is the root of the problem? Prosopagnosia can be a genetic or acquired problem, and most people diagnosed with the condition fall into one of these two groups.
However, estimates suggest that up to one in 50 people may develop the disease in their lifetime, and scientists suggest that it can run in families. Research shows that congenital or lifelong prosopagnosia is rare, Bloom said.
“Children born with this disease do not appear to have obvious structural brain abnormalities,” said Andrej Stojic, director of general neurology at the Cleveland Clinic. In particular, patients with congenital prosopagnosia do not show obvious brain abnormalities, so medical experts do not know the exact cause of this disease.
However, people who suffer from prosopagnosia later in life may develop brain abnormalities due to a traumatic event or head injury. Bonakdarpour says prosopagnosia can also occur in people after a stroke or when they’re battling Alzheimer’s disease.
How is prosopagnosia treated? According to Bonakdarpour, prosopagnosia cannot be treated in a timely manner. But the problem can be solved. People with this condition often struggle to distinguish between people, focusing on physical characteristics such as voice, gait and hair color.
Neurologists often make a diagnosis through a series of tests that assess a person’s memory and facial recognition skills. Bloom continues, “This can be a lengthy procedure as doctors try to make sure that the patient’s facial blindness is not a sign of a more serious neurodegenerative disease.
Interestingly, many patients with conditions like Pete’s never receive a formal diagnosis. According to Stojic, many of the difficulties he describes and the problems he faces are common to people.
