Can you learn facial recognition?

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I've always had trouble recognising people (or being sure I'm talking to the same person) if I've only met them once before. This has been a huge challenge for me in group work at uni. If I start a new class with people I've never met before and then immediately get put in a group in the first class I have a lot of trouble finding my group (and being sure I've found the RIGHT group) when I come into my second class. I do try to study the faces of my group members and notice specific features but I still usually can't remember or recognise everyone in my group which can lead to embarrassing situations and misunderstandings. My main tactic for dealing with it is trying to get to the second class really early and sitting where the group sat in the last class so that my group members will come to me. It's very successful except if I'm running late.

There is of course a lot of other times in life that not being able to recognise people I've seen before is a problem. Until it occurred to me that I might have aspergers it was something I was dealing with all the time but couldn't see it specifically. It just seemed a continuation of all my social mistakes - that if there was a way to offend someone I found it - and people do get offended if you can't recognise them.

Anyway, now that I can see the problem in a very specific light is there any way I can train myself to remember faces and be confident in trying to identify people I've seen only once or twice before? I feel like I just need to switch a certain part of my brain "on" for these sort of interactions.

I have been wondering the same thing. I participated in or started a thread about it a while back, can't remember the title, but essentially the outcome of that thread was that there is no way to directly improve facial recognition, but only to indirectly improve ability to recognise people, such as through remembering unique features, where they sit, sound of voice etc. I am planning to ask the neuropsychologist I am working with whether it is possible to directly improve and if so how, when I see him again next month - if you are interested in his response send me a PM and I'll reply once I have seen him.

Face blindness - that's the street term for Prosopagnosia - happens for any number of reasons. Some people are born that way. Some people get it from an accident or head trauma. Some people only have it when their allergies cause their brains to swell too big for their skull and it goes away with the allergic reaction.

The underlying reason for the face-blindness is the determiner of whether it can be changed or not. If it resulted from a wound, it may clear up when the wound heals. If it is the result of low levels of neurotransmitters, a good nutritionist that knows about amino acids may be able to help reverse it. If it's a birth defect, all bets are off.

So few people have this condition that hardly any research at all has been done on it. Certainly there's no drug for it, with its low incidence.

Living with it is hell on earth. The only way that has worked for me is to freely admit that I have the condition and ask people to remind me of their name (something I can "peg" immediately) when we meet again. I've never had any bad experiences when I did this with a sweet smile and preface it with "please". It works much better than letting them think I'm just snubbing them.

"Happiness is a form of courage, and courage is a choice."