prosopagnosia

English

WOTD – 2 April 2012

Etymology

Apparently derived from the German title of a 1947 paper by neurologist Joachim Bodamer describing the condition, titled Die Prosop-Agnosie, derived from Ancient Greek πρόσωπον ‎(prósōpon, “face”) and ἀγνωσία ‎(agnōsía, “non-knowledge”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌpɹɒsəpaɡˈnəʊzɪə/, /ˌpɹɒsəpaɡˈnəʊsɪə/, /ˌpɹɒsəʊpaɡˈnəʊzɪə/, /ˌpɹɒsəʊpaɡˈnəʊsɪə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌpɹɑsoʊpæɡˈnoʊʒə/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

prosopagnosia ‎(countable and uncountable, plural prosopagnosias)

1. A form of visual agnosia characterised by difficulty with face recognition despite intact low-level visual processing. Also known as PA.
   • 1984. "The extent to which this function [recognition of faces] has become specialized is revealed by a brain disorder called prospagnosia. A normal person can name someone from facial features alone, even if the features have changed substantially over the years. People with prosopagnosia are not able to make this association, but have few other neurological symptoms other than a loss of some part of the visual field." —Robert Axelrod, The Evolution of Cooperation, p. 102

Synonyms

• face blindness

Derived terms

Derived terms

acquired prosopagnosia congenital prosopagnosia developmental prosopagnosia

hereditary prosopagnosia (HPA) prosopagnosic

Translations

disorder of face perception

• Finnish: kasvosokeus
• French: prosopagnosie (fr) f
• German: Prosopagnosie (de) f
• Japanese: 相貌失認症 ‎(sōbō shitsuninshō)

• Polish: prozopagnozja (pl) f
• Portuguese: prosopagnosia (pt) f
• Spanish: prosopagnosia f
• Swedish: prosopagnosi c

See also

• Prosopagnosia on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

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Finnish

Noun

prosopagnosia

1. (pathology, psychology) face blindness, prosopagnosia (disorder in face recognition)

Declension

Inflection of prosopagnosia (Kotus type 12/kulkija, no gradation)
nominative		prosopagnosia	prosopagnosiat
genitive		prosopagnosian	prosopagnosioiden prosopagnosioitten
partitive		prosopagnosiaa	prosopagnosioita
illative		prosopagnosiaan	prosopagnosioihin
		singular	plural
nominative		prosopagnosia	prosopagnosiat
accusative	nom.	prosopagnosia	prosopagnosiat
	gen.	prosopagnosian
genitive		prosopagnosian	prosopagnosioiden prosopagnosioitten prosopagnosiainrare
partitive		prosopagnosiaa	prosopagnosioita
inessive		prosopagnosiassa	prosopagnosioissa
elative		prosopagnosiasta	prosopagnosioista
illative		prosopagnosiaan	prosopagnosioihin
adessive		prosopagnosialla	prosopagnosioilla
ablative		prosopagnosialta	prosopagnosioilta
allative		prosopagnosialle	prosopagnosioille
essive		prosopagnosiana	prosopagnosioina
translative		prosopagnosiaksi	prosopagnosioiksi
instructive		—	prosopagnosioin
abessive		prosopagnosiatta	prosopagnosioitta
comitative		—	prosopagnosioineen

Synonyms

• kasvosokeus