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Prosopagnosia is a disease associated with a visual disturbance. The name comes from the Greek language and is derived from the words meaning face and not knowing what is closely related to what exactly it is. Prosopagnosia is when the person doesn’t recognize people’s faces. For example, when he is in a group of people, he cannot distinguish between his friends. When meeting loved ones, he has the impression that he is seeing them for the first time. Prosopagnosia is otherwise called face blindness. People suffering from prosopagnosia include famous actor Brad Pitt, which is commonly referred to as: Brad Pitt’s syndrome.
Symptoms of prosopagnosia
Main symptom of prosopagnosia is the inability to recognize faces. In some cases, it may concern not only relatives of the sick person, but even the partner or parents. In extreme cases prosopagnosia may be manifested by the person being unable to recognize their own face. It should also be added that patients with prosopagnosia it is often affected by topographic agnosia at the same time. A person suffering from topographic agnosia does not recognize places and has problems returning home. In addition, it also has problems with distinguishing different things, e.g. type of writing, animals, plants. About 2% of the population suffer from the most severe type of disease, and 10% feel it less severely. This group includes people who recognize their relatives but have problems with meeting other friends.
The causes of prosopagnosia
Disease specialists have so far found no specific ones causes of prosopagnosia. According to their assumptions causes prosopagnosia they may be due to a malfunction in the temporal lobe or in the neural pathways that connect different parts of the brain. A very important element is the spindle-shaped facial area. This is due to the fact that these places are responsible for comparing the images we see at a given moment with those remembered earlier. According to one of the hypotheses causes of prosopagnosia may be associated with damage to the visual cortex, which is located in the right hemisphere of the brain. According to scientists the cause of prosopagnosia it may also have its source in a genetic mutation. Summarizing, it can be said that causes of prosopagnosia they can arise from birth defects as well as accidents in which one part of the brain related to vision has been damaged.
Prosopagnosia – treatment
Treatment of prosopagnosia it is actually impossible. So far, no drug, procedure or therapy has been developed that could cure the patient prosopagnosia. However, there are ways to reduce the effects of the disease. If it occurred after brain damage, e.g. by a stroke or severe trauma, drugs are used to improve circulation in the brain. Another way is psychological therapy, which involves exercising memory. In treatment prosopagnosia it is also recommended to take steps to recognize people by their details. These may include, for example, an unusual hairstyle, mole, that a person wears a characteristic hat or always walks with a dog that the patient recognizes. However, the problem is the situation in which such a person goes out alone, then he becomes a stranger for the sick person.
Prosopagnosia – prognosis
Prognosis in case of prosopagnosia unfortunately they are not optimistic. There is no effective way to cure a sick person. The only solutions to reduce the feeling of effects prosopagnosia it’s appropriate leczenie pharmacological – if possible – and participation in psychological therapy and memory training. Prosopagnosia cannot be cured completely, but we can make it less burdensome for you.
Prophylaxis – prosopagnosia
If prosopagnosia he has a genetic background, he is unable to act in any way prophylactically against disease. If we want to avoid prosopagnosia, we should protect the brain from strokes and injuries, so avoid dangerous and extreme situations and observe the behavior of our body.
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