Prosopagnosia:
Prosopagnosia /ˌprɑːsəpæɡˈnoʊʒə/[1] (Greek: “prosopon” = “face”, “agnosia” = “not knowing”), also called face blindness,[2] is a cognitive disorder of face perception where the ability to recognize familiar faces, including one’s own face (self-recognition), is impaired, while other aspects of visual processing (e.g., object discrimination) and intellectual functioning (e.g., decision making) remain intact. The term originally referred to a condition following acute brain damage (acquired prosopagnosia), but a congenital or developmental form of the disorder also exists, which may affect up to 2.5% of the population. [Wikipedia]
Encountered in the Letters column of NewScientist.
