This is a new thread started to continue answering peripheral questions that have come up with regards to my question/comments to Mr. Adams that wound up in his daily column (http://www.straightdope.com/columns/030523.html). The thread this is broken off from is title “How come all white people don’t look alike? (from 12-Nov-1982)” and can be found in the area devoted to “Comments on Cecil’s Columns.”
The original post mentioned that I have difficulty recognizing faces due to an autism-spectrum disorder (Asperger’s Syndrome). Not all people on the autism spectrum have this problem, but it does occur frequently as part and parcel of ASDs.
Much more commmon in ASDs is the problem of “face-blindness,” which is the problem of not recognizing facial expressions. Face-blindness is not the same thing as difficulty recognizing people by their faces, but the two seem to be related neurologically when they occur in people on the autism spectrum.
As one poster, Karen pointed out, ASDs are not necessarily co-morbid with prosopagnosia (the medical term for inability to recognize faces), nor vice versa. Hence the discussion.
To quote myself (yeah, I do that), “Essentially, difficulty with facial recognition and in “reading” faces [in aut-spec disorders) both seem to stem from the same neurological factor: people on the autism spectrum process facial images in the inferior temporal gyrus, which is used in the ‘normal’ brain only to recognize inanimate objects.”
Okay, let’s rumble!
Jennifer, what’s the question here? Or are you looking to have people ask you questions about it? Or debate the existence of face blindness and why it exists?
You might want to email a mod and ask them to move this to IMHO or Great Debates.
Dear Primaflora,
The question – a request for information on the nature of face-blindness and face recognition in people autism-spectrum disorders – was asked on the other thread, and this one is being set up to discuss said question.
In short, the questions implied by the request would be: How does face-blindness in autism work? Is difficulty recognizing faces separate from difficulty reading faces? [Yes, it is.] What are the physical occurences in the brain which cause face-blindness?
Certainly the existence of face blindness is not being debated (it is a well-documented factor in autism), nor am I looking to be asked more questions personally. Since this is not an opinion-based topic, but a research based one, it doesn’t seem suitable for IMHO, and neurological issues in ASDs don’t seem to come under the heading of “Great Debates,” any more than why chicken pox itch would.
Admittedly, I am not the best possible person to determine a thread’s ideal localtion. If you are concerned that there is no specific question addressed to Mr. Adams here, and therefore you feel the thread should be moved, I believe the moderator(s) would be more qualified than I am to determine whether that would be the correct thing to do. Please feel free to contact a mod and voice your concern.
At any rate, thanks for the opportunity to clear up the nature of the question(s) being addressed. If you wanted more details on why this got put where it is, you can check out the original thread as described in the first post for this thread.