Explained: What is facial blindness that Brad Pitt says he suffers from?

In a recent interview with GQ, Brad Pitt talked about an unusual and rare neurological condition that makes him forget faces of people he has met, which limits his interactions during social events.

He is not the only famous person to suffer from this bizarre condition named prosopagnosia, also known as ‘facial blindness’. Actor and travel vlogger Shenaz Treasurywala also recently revealed that she suffers from the condition.

While Pitt has never been formally diagnosed with the condition, Treasurywala took to Instagram and talked about her diagnosis and explained what this cognitive disorder is.

What is prosopagnosia?

As per the US-based National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, prosopagnosia is a neurological disorder characterized by the inability to recognise faces. Prosopagnosia is also known as face blindness or facial agnosia.

Depending upon the degree of impairment, some people with prosopagnosia may only have difficulty recognising a familiar face; others will be unable to discriminate between unknown faces, while still others may not even be able to distinguish a face as being different from an object.

Some people with the disorder are unable to recognise their own face.

Prosopagnosia is not related to memory dysfunction, memory loss, impaired vision, or learning disabilities.

Some research has shown it can affect as many as 1 in 50 people to some degree.

What causes prosopagnosia?

According to the National Health Service (NHS), face blindness usually affects people from birth, and it can have a severe impact on their everyday life.

The disorder can also be a result of a stroke, traumatic brain injury, or certain neurodegenerative diseases.

Congenital prosopagnosia appears to run in families, which makes it likely to be the result of a genetic mutation or deletion. Some degree of prosopagnosia is often present in children with autism and Asperger’s syndrome, and may be the cause of their impaired social development.

How can it be treated?

Adults who have the condition as a result of stroke or brain trauma can be retrained to use other clues to identify individuals.

According to the NHS, "There's no specific treatment for prosopagnosia, but researchers are continuing to investigate what causes the condition, and training programmes are being developed to help improve facial recognition."

"It's thought that compensatory strategies that help with person recognition, or techniques that attempt to restore normal face-processing mechanisms, may work for some people with either developmental or acquired prosopagnosia.”

With inputs from agencies

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