Last night, 60 Minutes did a story on prosopagnosia–otherwise known as face blindness. People with this condition, to varying degrees, cannot distinguish different faces. Sometimes, they can't even recognize family members.
Or villains.
I learned about face blindness several years ago and thought it would make an interesting plot angle in The Gods of Greenwich. But I wish I had seen this 60 Minutes segment before writing my novel. The upside-down-head test makes prosopagnosia far more tangible. Watch the show, and you'll see what I mean.
The New York Times describes my novels as “money porn,” “a red-hot franchise,” and “glittery thrillers about fiscal malfeasance.” Through fiction I explore the dark side of money and the motivations of those who have it, want more, and will steamroll anybody who gets in their way.
Life never ceases to amaze me with new discoveries of the brain…thanks for sharing this new knowledge..
Face blindness is quite intetesring. Though you didn’t mention it, the Cambridge Face Memory Test is available at Faceblind.org (as well as elsewhere). It presents a few faces for memorization, then quizzes you asking to pick out the memorized face from others. Scoring somewhat low on it myself, it was a bit validating. but still, I didn’t think the test was that accurate of an assessment because many of the faces can be picked out by distinct shape and outline, which at least for me, is not the specific issue with faceblindness that I struggle. I would say facial features is more of an issue.