Evening star., 1949-09-02
Inability to Recognize
Faces Seen as Brain III
Abnormal Ability to Distinguish
Voices Accompanies Malady
By Thomas X. Henry


A brain malady characterized by complete
inability to recognize faces, accompanied by
an abnormal ability to distinguish voices.
recently has been described.
The condition is called "proSop- agnosia"
Three cases are described in the Quarterly
Review OF PSychiatry and Neurology by
DR.. Joachim Bodamer of the University Of
Wurttemberg, Germany. All the victims were
former German soldiers with what appeared
to be minor brain injuries, but Dr. Bodamer
believes that these were really more extensive
than appeared on the surface and probably
involved considerable areas of the occipital
lobes of the brain. These are the rear areas
OF the cerebral corteX, which are the brain
centers of seeing.
Inability to recognize a face is a fairly
common experience the world over, Dr.
Bodamer says, but in these cases it developed
to the extent that the men could not recog-
nize their closest friends or members of their
own families. All the different features, how
ever, are seen perfectly, but the face of ones
own mother would appear to be that of a
stranger In one case which is hardly a true
instance of prosop-agnosa the victim said
ne could recognize features yet always saw
them in distorted and defective fashion.
Efforts to Overcome Defect.
In their efforts to overcome the defect, Dr.
Bodamer says, the men would concentrate
on the eyes OF every one they met. They said
that they were not interested in the color
shape or size of the eyes, which meant
nothing to them, but only in the expression
This sometimes gave them a clue to the
identity of a person.
Recent experiments with infants strongly
indicate, the report says that this is the Way
a child first comes to recognize faces. The
actual features OF the mother or nurse mean
notnlng until after recognition by eye
expression has become we'll established.
Thus, it is concluded, the newly found
syndrome may be a partial repression to
early childhood and the brain areas affected
may be some of the earliest to function after
birth.
An abnormal sharpness of hearing appears
almost Immediately
1T would SEEM says DR.. Bodamer that
some higher authority in the brain had rec
ognized the visual deficiency and had ordered
It's compensation by another sense"
An international network of So stations
scattered around the earth now is making
daily soundings of the 'ionosphere, a series
OF electrified layers in the atmosphere from
oo 10 2o0 miles above the earth, which make
POSSIBLE all long-dlstance, short-wave radio
transmission
The altitude of these layers and the in
tenslty of the electrifcation differ from day
10 day with the varying amounts of ultra
violet light received from the sun, and the
efficacy OF radio transmission varies accord
lngly. The daily soundings are used as a
basis for prediction of transmitting condi-
tions.
Fourteen OF these stations are operated by
the National Bureau of Standards Most of
these are located in the United States
recent bureau discovery, it has just been
announced. makes it possible essentially to
double the number of stations from which
daily observations can be made without
extra cost.
Analyses of Soundings
Statistical analyses of ionosphere sound
ings indicate that the characteristics OBJ
served at station in a given latitude and
longitude and at a given season of the year
are essentially identical with those at an
opposite point on the other side of the
earth during the same season. Two such
points are Baton Rouge, La, and Watheroo,
Australia. The soundings on April at
Baton Rouge would be the same as those
on October at Watheroo, and the same
holds true for every day of the year.
Although it has been possible to estimate
optimum operating frequencies for long-dis-
tance transmission between two points at
given time, the bureau scientists say, the
present limited network of ionosphere sta
tions leaves many gaps on the world map.
Many of these now can be filled in by the
assumed readings from nonexistent stations
made possible by the discovery.