Prosopagnosia: Seeing the World through Fog-Colored Glasses
With impressive consistency, the visual system, along with each accompanying component that in sum total constitutes a person, develops without error. Patterns of input impinge on complex layers of cells, with the resulting neural interpretation allowing us to negotiate the spatial world around us such that we may avoid causing harm to ourselves or to others. Various devices and techniques have been devised to allow those who are not equipped with a similarly functioning visual system to escape natural selection's discerning grasp. However, various gradations of dysfunction exist between perfect and no vision, which complicate the life of the person suffering from these disorders no less. The disorder prosopagnosia, in particular, otherwise known as "face blindness," causes a crippling deficit in a person's ability to recognize faces (1, 2, 3, 6, 7). It is a somewhat ill understood and deceiving phenomenon. Those individuals suffering from prosopagnosia are able to see perfectly well, to the extent that their perception of visual stimuli is not impaired. However, when presented with a person's face, they are utterly unable to recall having seen that face or having interacted with the person attached to it.
Some people would make the distinction between prosopagnosia and facial agnosia (4, 8), with the former applying only to familiar faces while the latter applies more generally to prevent the recognition of any faces. While this might suggest memory impairment as a possible cause, evidence for perceptual deficits has been consistent (4), thereby refuting the notion that these individuals are simply not able to remember people they have encountered. Specifically, the locus of damage that results in prosopagnosia appears to be the medial occipitotemporal cortex (4), though the disorder may be congenital or acquired (2). Lesions in this somewhat posterior and deeply embedded region of the brain, suggested by some researchers to be bilateral in the instance of this disorder, would be consistent with the presented deficits in perception. However there are certain elements of the research and the disorder which seem counterintuitive. For instance, that these "face blind" individuals only cite difficulty in recognizing familiar faces suggests that the problem may be more than just perceptual. Furthermore, there is separate evidence suggesting that visual processing occurs on a unilateral level (4), and that stimuli are perceived contralaterally. This orientation does not preclude a bilateral lesioning being at the root of prosopagnosia, however it does offer some complicating factors.
... sight: A case of hemineglect. In J. A. Ogden, Fractured Minds (pp. 113-136). New York: Oxford University Press.
Processing capacity is a very broad and flexible category according to many researchers. In fact, the quote above mentioned suggests that we often fail to notice things that happen just in front of us (unexpected events that are often salient) either because we were completely absorbed by something else or because we had so many things to do at the same time that we couldn’t pay attention to it. We have all at least once failed to see a friend who was waving at us while eating in the cafeteria or walking in a crowded street. The primary question that we should ask ourselves is: how many things can we attend at the same time? The truth is that we didn’t perceive this friend because of a phenomenon called “inattentional blindness”. The problem is that the richness of our visual experience leads us to believe that our visual representation will include and preserve the same amount of detail (Levin et al 2000). In this paper we’ll see the different theories of inattentional blindness, and the classical theories demonstrating this paradigm.
Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) (also known as Sickle Cell Disorder or Sickle Cell Anemia) is an inherited blood disorder where the red blood cells have abnormal sickle-shaped hemoglobin S (HbS) called sickle haemoglobin (National Heart Lungs and Blood Institute (NHLBI), 2015). The disease, according to medical sciences, is inherited from both parents as part of their genetic makeup and is usually caused by some abnormalities in haemoglobin which is a protein in red blood cells that conveys oxygen through the body. Whereas normal red blood cells are round, in people with sickle cell anemia, a defective substance in red blood cells changes the shape of the cells. The normal haemoglobin called haemoglobin A (HbA) is replaced by HbS which later becomes
McDermott, L. B. (2014, April 11). Arkansas to appeal ruling on abortion restriction law. Reuters. Texarkana, Arkansas. Retrieved April 25, 2014, from http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/11/us-usa-abortion-arkansas-idUSBREA3A1ZL20140411
The Battle of Gettysburg began when the Confederate’s general, Robert E. Lee, invaded the town of Gettysburg in hope of relieving Virginia farmers of the burden of war and to allow them to harvest crops for the Confederacy without interference (Thomason). Lee believed that his army could take advantage of the farms and woodlands of rural Pennsylvania during the plentiful summer months. The t...
Myopia is a condition in which visual images come into focus in front of the retina of the eye. This condition causes objects at a distance to appear blurry, while objects nearby are seen clearly. If not severe, myopia can be treated with contacts or glasses. Other treatments for myopia include photoreactive keratectomy (PRK), LASIK, and orthokeratology. Degenerative myopia is a quick progression of myopia and leads to complete loss of vision. The treatment for degenerative myopia is a combination of medication and laser surgery.
Simmon, Harvey. "Sickle Cell Disease." University of Maryland Medical Center. N.p., 14 Mar. 2013. Web. 06 Feb. 2014.
Visual agnosia is a neurological disorder characterized by the inability to recognize familiar objects (Farah, 1990). Object recognition is the ability to place an object in a category of meaning. Most cases of visual agnosia are brought about through cerebral vascular accidents or traumatic brain injury typically inhibiting sufficient amounts of oxygen from reaching vital body tissues (Zoltan, 1996). There are a vast array of impaired abilities and deficits associated with individuals diagnosed with visual agnosia. These impairments vary considerably from individual to individual (Farah, 1990). Some patients cannot recognize pictures of things such as trees and birds, despite being able to describe such objects or recognize them through other senses such as sound and touch. Other patients demonstrate an inability to recognize faces of friends and family members (Goodale, 1995). The functional impairments experienced as a r...
... justice, and evidence is provided towards the case of the Texas Women’s Health Program. The fight against abortion cannot stand solely on the pedestal of moral justice, just as budget cuts towards family planning and women’s health can be expected to stay without consequences to individuals across the state. Planned Parenthood should not a target for religious justice and women should not be put on the backburner when they make up half of our population. It should be and is the duty of state government to protect and best serve the people it looks over, and to isolate and mistreat so many across the state is to bring shame to all the advancements we have made previously. I hope that we can soon make amends to problems brought upon by false convictions, or at the very least have those for this bill realize that their morality is not reaching those who truly need it.
Levy, Pema. "The Abortion Case The Supreme Court May Find Hard To Refuse." Newsweek Global 162.3 (2014): 66-72. Academic Search Complete. Web. 30 Mar. 2014.
The most predominant feature of the human face is eyes. When talking to a person our eyes meet there eyes; the way that people identify each other is through eyes; eyes even have the power to communicate on its own. Eliezer identified people buy there eyes and knew their emotions through their eyes. “Across the aisle, a beautiful women with dark hair and dreamy eyes. I had
Evolution has evolved our brains into complex machines capable of computing the most intricate mathematical equations that compose our universe. Yet this highly functioning and introspective device is often subject to disease and injury. Prosopagnosia, or the inability to process facial recognition data, commonly known as “face blindness,” is a complex and highly involved disorder that pertains to multiple bilateral regions of the brain. Correctly identifying facial emotion is imperative for the survival of any sentient being and we continually strive to understand how and why some brains are unable to engage this simple mechanism. This research paper looks at prosopagnosia and its effects on processing facial emotion. It will cover the complexities of this disorder, as well as reviewing other neural abnormalities to illustrate how each part of the brain helps or hinders the processing of input data.
LaFantasie, Glenn. "Lincoln and the Gettysburg Awakening." Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association, Vol. 16, No. 1 (1995), pp. 73-89. JSTOR.Web. 19 Sept. 2013.
In the year March 1970, a woman dubbed Jane Roe took federal action against Texas abortion laws. These laws prevented Roe from terminating her pregnancy because abortions were only allowed in the scenario that the fetus was harming the life of the mother (Rosenbaum 63). Because Roe wasn’t in any way harmed by her pregnancy, she could not get an abortion. “Roe believed that TX statutes were unconstitutionally vague and that they abridged her right of personal privacy, protected by the First, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments” (Rosenbaum 64). She wanted an abortion done professionally in a clean and safe environment (Rosenbaum 63). Women before the legalization of abortion would resort to unsafe methods to terminate their baby (Tribe 113).
From the outside looking in, people might see a series of peculiar expressions, an odd distraction, and an unparalleled eye connection, but they see you nevertheless. Although in return, why couldn't you do the same? You frantically scour their physical features: their ears, their hair, “the way they move”, anything that distinguishes them. Their image seems clear in person, but the moment they leave, their face becomes a mismatched puzzle as the details become hazier within seconds. Prosopagnosia, commonly known as face blindness, is a condition where part of the brain that recognizes familiar faces fails to develop due to brain injury or a genetic condition. This condition is an obstacle in which both Finn, the protagonist in the novel Bone