Zebra of the Week: Developmental prosopagnosia (face blindness)

This lifelong condition impairs a person's ability to recognize faces, in the absence of sensory visual problems and intellectual impairment. People with this condition have normal intelligence and memory, low-level vision, and no history of brain injury. They typically learn to use non-face cues including voice, walking style (gait) and hairstyle to recognize others. Symptoms that may vary include whether a person can perceive facial expressions normally, or recognize objects normally. Familial reports of this condition are consistent with autosomal dominant inheritance.