Stranger Dangerous Case Study

Stranger Danger: A Closer Look on Prosopagnosia Physically not seeing a loved one in front of you is terrible, but what is worse is not being able to recognize them as one. There is a lot of information and research on how the eyes physically see light, shadows, shapes, and movement, but not many scientists can explain how and why prosopagnosia, also known as, face blindness, occurs. I will attempt to shed light on what face blindness is, what areas of the brain are affected in people with face blindness and how it affects the lives of people who have this disability.

I personally picked this topic because researching about one of the biggest senses a human has, is very intriguing to me. In addition, it is fascinating what happens after the

This article continues to talk about how face blindness affects academic/career, safety, interpersonal relationships, and coping strategies (Diaz, 2008). Up to now, face blindness not only affects the individuals’ perception to see but it affects their memories, interaction with people, the environment and how it affects all aspects of their life. Prosopagnosia can be debilitating to one’s social and functional life, and often special accommodations must be made. These special accommodations could address social, safety and academic concerns (Diaz, 2008). From the outside, this disorder affects an individual to interact with other people, but what happens internally? That is, what areas are affected when it comes to face recognition? According to the textbook, Biological Psychology by James Kalat:

Face recognition depends on several brain areas, including part of the inferior occipital cortex known as the occipital face area, the amygdala, and parts of the temporal cortex, including the fusiform gyrus… (Rossion, Hanseeuw, & Dricot, 2012).

Knowing that, there was a study that showed how three people with

(2017, October 25). About Face [Audio podcast]. Retrieved from http://www.radiolab.org/story/121383-about-face/ Diaz, A. L. (2008). Do I Know You? A Case Study of Prosopagnosia (Face Blindness). The

Journal of School Nursing, 24(5), 284-289. doi:10.1177/1059840508322381

Kalat, J. W. (2016). Recognizing Faces. In Biological Psychology (12th ed., Chapter 5.3-2b). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

Stock, J. V., Van de Riet, W. A., Righart, R., & Gelder, B. D. (2008, September 17). Neural

Correlates of Perceiving Emotional Faces and Bodies in Developmental Prosopagnosia:

An Event-Related fMRI-Study. Retrieved October 17, 2017, from