Science is Fun Fridays!

 

The fusiform gyrus is the part of our brain that processes faces.

Some people have face blindness, or prosopagnosia, where the identifying features of a face are difficult to make out.  1 in 50 people experience this, including Brad Pitt and Dr. Oliver Sacks.

There's a much rarer condition, called prosopometamorphopsia, of which only 81 cases exist in published literature.  In this, faces are distorted.  One man, Victor Sharrah, recently helped create a computer image of what he sees.

"What people don't understand from a picture is that the distorted face is moving, contorting, talking to you, making facial gestures."  

The visual can vary - some people see dragon faces or fish heads, and others see horrors like eyes gouged out or cheek cavities.

Many people with PMO have been diagnosed as schizophrenic based on presumed hallucinations.  And it's very likely more people have the condition but don't realize they're seeing differently.

Catherine Morris, a researcher at Dartmouth, thought a particular color or intensity of light might distort the distortion.  They went through various trials before determining a shade of green solved it.  A pair of glasses were developed and Sharrah was confident to see his estranged daughter and meet his grandchildren.

Additional research confirms the effect of color, but like the distortion itself, the hue varies.