Episode 62: What Is Prosopagnosia? – features Dr. Brad Duchaine, Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth College, exploring the science, social impact, and neural mechanisms of face blindness.

Episode Summary: This episode features a conversation with Dr. Brad Duchaine, a researcher with over two decades of experience studying face perception.

Listen as Dr. Duchaine breaks down what prosopagnosia is, how the brain calculates facial measurements, the distinction between perception and memory deficits, the visual distortion condition known as PMO, and how face blindness impacts everyday social interactions.

In this episode we discuss:

• ​00:00 – Introduction to Dr. Brad Duchaine and the question of prosopagnosia
• ​01:17 – Pronunciation of prosopagnosia and Dr. Duchaine's early interest in the condition
• ​02:31 – Specialized psychological mechanisms and entering face recognition research
• ​03:27 – How the brain processes person recognition and measures facial characteristics
• ​04:57 – Perceptual precision deficits vs. memory/indexing impairments in prosopagnosia
• ​07:39 – Prosopometamorphopsia (PMO) and active facial feature distortions
• ​10:48 – Causes of face blindness: Acquired prosopagnosia vs. developmental prosopagnosia
• ​12:53 – How the internet expanded research access and public awareness
• ​14:12 – Coping strategies, non-facial identity cues, and contextual recognition
• ​16:03 – Testing for face blindness online (Cambridge Face Memory Test and famous face tests)
• ​17:42 – Diagnostic thresholds and normal distribution of face recognition ability
• ​19:03 – Current gaps in understanding neural computations and information processing
• ​20:33 – Prevalence of developmental prosopagnosia and findings from public reach-out
• ​22:03 – The "prosopagnosia epiphany" and validating past social experiences
• ​23:51 – Social implications, interpersonal misunderstandings, and emotional costs
• ​25:21 – Practical advice for navigating face recognition challenges with others
• ​26:24 – Resources for learning more and participating in research
• ​27:35 – Conclusion

Resources:

• ​⁠⁠Face Blind Research

This episode includes the track 'RSPN' by Blank & Kytt. The song is used under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. You can find more of Blank & Kytt's music ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here.⁠