Summary

The author discusses the challenges of face recognition due to potential age-related vision changes, reflecting on personal experiences and the possibility of having a condition like prosopagnosia or visual agnosia, ultimately considering the use of glasses.

Abstract

The article delves into the author's recent difficulty in recognizing faces from a distance, which has led to some embarrassing social situations. Initially, the author explores whether this could be due to a condition like prosopagnosia or visual agnosia, given a history of Multiple Sclerosis. However, the author rules out these conditions as the primary cause, attributing the issue instead to potential nearsightedness, which has become more pronounced with age. The piece also touches on the author's past experience of nearly mistaking a celebrity for a close friend due to a para-social interaction, highlighting the complexities of facial recognition. The author concludes by contemplating the use of glasses to aid vision, while also acknowledging the advancements in facial recognition technology as a means to maintain connections.

Opinions

The author believes that the inability to recognize faces from afar is not due to a neurological condition like prosopagnosia or visual agnosia, but rather to age-related changes in eyesight.
There is a sense of reluctance and denial about needing glasses, as the author associates it with aging and a change in personal appearance.
The author reflects on a past incident where they almost embraced a stranger, mistaking them for a known individual, illustrating the impact of para-social interactions on perception.
The author seems to take comfort in the advancements of facial recognition technology, suggesting it could compensate for the natural decline in facial recognition abilities.
There is an acknowledgment of the potential social and moral implications of misidentifying individuals due to poor facial recognition.

When the Ability to Recognize Others Fails Us

Sorry folks, the cause may be age.

It’s shy of two months since I wrote this article about my infant granddaughter and the stress COVID-19's put on our relationship. Without means to see her outside of video telephone calls, I researched whether she recognized me from seeing my picture and hearing my voice. Having rarely met in person, I wanted to ensure she was getting to know me. My findings were that she found me familiar based on her positive reactions to seeing my face.

Studies showed that looking at someone’s face is a key identifier for recognition. Of late, I’ve noticed, I am finding it increasingly difficult to differentiate facial features from afar. Only once the person is close can I make out the eyes, nose, cheekbones, and mouth. It can be embarrassing to see someone wave and to wave back with no clear understanding if I know the person or not.

There are various causes for the lack of face recognition. I became curious. Delving into the causes was warranted to see if I should be concerned.

Am I suffering from Prosopagnosia, otherwise known as face blindness?

[S]ome people with prosopagnosia may only have difficulty recognizing a familiar face; others will be unable to discriminate between unknown faces, while still others may not even be able to distinguish a face as being different from an object.

Research reveals that prosopagnosia is a congenital disorder that is neurologically based and does not refer to memory issues. A person is born with it. This, therefore, is not my case with having a history of face recognition throughout my life.

This brought me to another explanation called visual agnosia. This disorder is described as “the loss of the ability to recognize objects, faces, voices, or places. It’s a rare disorder involving one (or more) of the senses.” This is a possible cause as I suffer from Multiple Sclerosis. Since agnosia is caused by lesions to the brain and can be caused by neurological disorders, there is a possibility my lesions could have this effect. However, I’m really not fitting into the other areas described.

My M.S. has been stable for years with no known new lesions, and I’ve only come to notice this issue recently. Why am I able to distinguish people’s bodies, limbs, and gait but not the facial features that make them uniquely recognizable? It only makes sense that this cause is not due to brain lesions. It’s because of deficiencies in my eyes.

I’ve never been someone who needed glasses until recently when reading road signs became problematic. I wear them only for driving. Is my face recognition something as simple as being nearsighted?

According to the Mayo Clinic, “Nearsightedness (myopia) is a common vision condition in which you can see objects near to you clearly, but objects farther away are blurry.” It seems a likely explanation. Glasses clear up the blurriness. Call me strange, but something is daunting in joining the ranks of those whose eyesight is failing, likely due to age.

As my 60th birthday at the end of the year is looming, I have to admit I don’t want to need glasses, and even more so, I don’t want to get old.

If you wear glasses, perhaps you remember the difficulties you endured in getting used to them: the lightheadedness and the dizziness. I’ve experienced them both. Not to mention how glasses don’t enhance my facial features. I’ve foregone recognizing people until they’re upon me. Poor eyesight or not, does it really matter if I wave at strangers?

There was a time in my past when I embarrassingly almost hugged someone I’ve not known before. It wasn’t because of a lack of seeing their face. Another factor came into play.

I was in my twenties and working as a model and spokeswoman at the local exhibition. I was meeting lots of strangers and having the time of my life. I was giving make-up demonstrations, talking to interested up-and-coming candidates seeking modelling classes, and selling dreams, when off in the distance among the crowds of people, I saw someone I knew. Or at least, so I thought.

He felt familiar, yet distant. In my split-second recognition, it felt like we hadn’t seen each other in years, and it seemed like only yesterday. I raced over to say hello, and when I got close, I stopped short. I couldn’t remember his name. How was it possible? I felt I knew him like a closest friend.

Then it hit me who he was. He was an actor from my favourite soap opera. I felt like I knew him because for ten years, every day, he was in my living room and a big part of my life. I knew all his problems and his fantasies. In fact, it felt like I knew him better than most of my friends.

According to Psychology Today, “This illusion of a relationship with celebrities is called “para-social interaction.”

Fortunately, I caught myself before I leapt into his arms, as was my first inkling before catching myself. By the crowd of people swarming him, I’m sure he appreciated my awareness. Sometimes facial recognition isn’t something positive at all.

This isn’t the first time I’ve misinterpreted strangers as friends. Haven’t we all said hello to someone only to realize we’ve mistaken them for someone else?

In summary, facial recognition is tricky. Acknowledgement is gained through person-to-person contact or technology, and it can just as easily be absent or lost through trauma, defect, or disease. We can identify known friendships and acquaintances as well as falsely misjudge our familiarity with others. If we can’t interpret facial features, we risk acting in immoral or illegal ways.

Hmm, perhaps, I should reconsider the glasses.

According to Jan Chipchase,

Facial recognition software is already quite accurate in measuring unchanging and unique ratios between facial features that identify you as you. It’s like a fingerprint.

Glasses or no glasses, it really doesn’t matter. As my eyesight diminishes, perhaps I can take comfort in the knowledge that thanks to scientific discovery, I will be able to recognize you through a click of a mouse.