Prosopagnosia: how many of you have it?

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I have this and have only recently realised it. If two characters in a movie look alike, I can get very confused because the plot won't make sense. I often find myself looking at people carefully because I'm not sure if I've seen them before. If someone is "out of context", it takes me a while to work out who they are. It must look very strange to other people. Unless someone has a very obvious distinguishing feature or two, I need to meet them several times before I'll have a hope of recognising them.

I'm sure it puts people off. I started uni last year and have met a lot of people there. I still cannot recognise the majority of them. It's actually a shame because many of them seem like pleasant people. I wonder how many times someone I've met before has thought I've ignored them, when I've actually just not recognised them. I'm starting to wonder if I should explain my problem at the first meeting so that potential friends don't get offended.

I have it.

I think I have it on some small degree. But most of the time, I can remember people.

I don't think I have it, I do recognise people, but I frequently can't remember names or where I know them from unless they are people I have had a good reason to remember. I have also had people talk to me that I did apparently know before from the past but I don't remember them at all, although this could probably happen to anyone.

Watching Once Upon a Time is making this extremely obvious to me yet again.

I find it very hard to see that two characters played by the same person are actually played by the same person. This is in the majority of cases. Even the one actor I recognized the first time I saw him (Mr. Gold, Robert Carlyle) I didn't recognize in his other identity (Rumpelstiltskin).

On another forum I read, someone claimed that it is impossible to learn strategies to recognize people, even though learning such strategies is extremely common among people with developmental prosopagnosia.

Yes, but it's one thing that I've improved somewhat over time, that and remembering names. I'm still crap at it but no longer 100% hopeless. I definitely think it's Aspie-related because it's a clear social deficit.

Does his voice trigger anything in your mind, to indicate that they're played by the same person? I know he changes it for Rumpelstiltskin, but, I can still hear Robert Carlyle's voice. So, if I did have a problem telling who he was, by looking, the voice would confirm it. It's not a matter of recognising the voice as whole package, I just hear little 'tells'. I'm the same with faces. If I see someone I think I know, from years ago, but can't be sure, I just have to spot a tiny thing about them that reminds me (either a part of their face or expression or something about their voice or how they walk). The last time, it was a woman's gumline. I don't have face blindness, however.

As I understand it, the congenital/developmental form of prosopagnosia is more common in people on the spectrum, but is by no means limited to them.

I suspect that acquired prosopagnosia has about the same probability of affecting those on the spectrum as those off the spectrum.

Yes. Whatever he did with his voice does not sound like I expect him to sound. I can recognize him as Mr. Gold or before he became Rumpelstiltskin, but his "imp voice" doesn't sound like him to me. Synesthetically, his normal voice is kind of furry, but his imp voice is sharp (as in like a knife, not metaphorically) and kind of stretchy.

If you don't make eye contact, it's hard to recognise anybody.

I go by voices most of the time. And hope nobody notices I never use their names before they speak.

Wow, I didn't know!
But some say, he is on the spectrum...!



No.
I have difficulties remembering faces and describing them, but I don't have Prosopagnosia.

I'm pretty good at recognizing faces, but I worked with a woman who has this. Once I came into work with a new haircut and she could only recognize me when my name was mentioned. She used to be a social worker, so it caused her some problems. Thankfully, many of her clients were very understanding.

Kinda.
I can immediately recognize my parents' and my brother's faces. It takes me a few seconds to recognize other people's ones, expecially if they're "out of contest"(meaning I see a person I usually see in one place in another place).

There have been several times when I failed to recognize my younger brother.

One thing I'm really bad at is recognizing people in old photographs, even family members. I have no recollection at all about what my paternal grandmother looked like at all even though I grew up right across the field from her and spent many hours at her house. The only thing that would help me identify my paternal grandfather is his thinness and his hair.

My parents have both passed away. If I look at a picture of them from much before the last time I saw them, I can't seem to recognize them at all unless I recognize the photo itself or unless the photo offers some context.

A few years ago, someone asked me if I could identify people in a group picture taken one day right after church from when I was a teenager. I remember quite clearly the picture being taken and me being in it, but I cannot even identify myself in it. Yet, when I saw the picture, I immediately recognized the picture itself and remembered the occasion when it was taken.

I seem to have this to a degree. Examples would be a guy who I had several conversations with a work the previous week had his long hair cut short and struck up a conversation in the canteen. I did not even slightly recognise him although it was clear i should. It took me about a day to figure out who it was.

Also, I have trouble with similar faces. It has taken me ages to finally be able to reliably distinguish Nicolas Cage from John Cussack. Same with Leonardo Dicaprio and Matt Damon. When it's actors its not too much of a big deal and just gives my wife a laugh at my expense but I had the same problem with two of her sister's husbands - They were both quite similar looking and I was never able to tell them apart at all.

I also find it near to impossible to identify people I might know really well if I was not already expecting to see them or it is in some way out of context.

All in all it is quite embarrassing but nowhere near as bad as some seem to have it.

Si

I can relate.