Science AMA Series: Hi reddit, I’m Dr Ashok Jansari, a neuropsychologist
at Goldsmiths, University of London. I research individuals with
face-blindness and so called ‘super recognisers’, who have an almost
superhuman ability to recognise faces. AMA!
Abstract
Hi reddit! I first became interested in facial recognition when one of
my patients mistook me for George Michael, of Wham fame. While somewhat
flattering and very funny, it also provided an insight into how people
with acquired brain injury can struggle to recognise faces. This
condition, known as ‘prosopagnosia’ or face-blindness, can prevent
otherwise healthy people from recognising the faces of famous people,
friends, loved ones, and even themselves. It can either be ‘acquired’
through brain damage or can be a developmental condition that someone
has had all their lives. A famous case of the former is ‘The man who
mistook his wife for a hat’ documented by Oliver Sacks. Interestingly
Oliver Sacks himself then found out that he probably had the
developmental variant of the condition! My research into both
developmental and acquired prosopagnosia helps us to understand how
face-processing works in healthy people. More recently, I’ve been
collaborating on a project to identify so-called ‘super-recognisers’ –
people on the opposite end of the facial recognition spectrum.
Super-recognisers exhibit near super-human facial recognition abilities
and can often remember faces that they have only seen fleetingly years
before or schoolmates that they haven’t seen since childhood with
relative ease. Through this work, I am collaborating with London’s
Metropolitan Police using super-recognisers in the force to track down
criminals from the most indistinct CCTV images - indeed, the Met are the
first police force in the world to use super-recognisers to fight crime!
Take the test and find out if you could be a ‘super recogniser’. If you
get over 85% you could be at the top end of the facial recognition
spectrum. I will be back at 2:30 BST (9:30 am ET)to answer your
questions, Ask Me Anything! Here’s proof I’m here. I’ll be answering
your questions shortly! OK FOLKS, I’M GOING TO CALL IT A DAY. THANKS SO
MUCH FOR TAKING PART IN THIS DISCUSSION. And thanks for all of those who
did the test - you really contributed to science because your results
will be part of my database which adds to our knowledge. I will reply to
everyone who has emailed me but that might take a couple of days. I will
look at this thread again and see if there are questions I can answer.
Hope you found this useful and thanks again :-)