Ever met someone who struggles to recognise celebrities ?
Sounds unbelievable, but for people with prosopagnosia, or face blindness, this is a daily reality. It’s not about poor memory or bad eyesight—they can see faces just fine, but telling one apart from another is the challenge. Some can’t recognise close family, friends, or even their own reflection in the mirror.
Over the last decade, countries like Korea, Japan, the US, and China have recognised face blindness as a form of neurodivergence—a condition where the brain processes information differently from what is considered typical. India, however, has yet to make this shift. Research on face blindness here is still in its infancy. But that may soon change, kudos to researchers from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru.
Less than a year ago, two scientists from IISc—SP Arun, a professor at the Centre for Neuroscience, and Vaishnavi Mohite, a post-doctoral researcher, set out to bridge this research gap. In November 2024, Mohite began laying the groundwork for the Indian Face Perception Project, an ambitious initiative aimed at understanding how we perceive faces by examining the full spectrum of human ability: from those who struggle to recognise even familiar faces (a condition known as prosopagnosia) to individuals with exceptional face recognition skills, often referred to as super recognisers.
The duo made a significant leap on Saturday (June 21) with the launch of the Indian Face Memory Test (IFMT)—an online tool specifically adapted and designed for Indian faces. This test is expected to be a vital starting point for advancing research on face perception from an Indian perspective. By identifying both ends of the spectrum—face blindness and super recognition—the IFMT can help prevent those with face blindness from being unfairly labelled as rude, indifferent, or “a bit dim” simply because they struggle to remember faces.
“This will be a game-changer for people who suffer from prosopagnosia in India,” said Mohite. “Not recogising the existence of a problem puts these people under a lot of stress and anxiety stemming from the societal expectations.”
One participant in the study described a striking symptom: they couldn’t picture a single face, not even their parents’. In dreams, too, faces were blank. Planes, chairs, water bottles—all there. But faces? Nowhere.
Mohite told The Statesman that recent research indicates that 1 in every 50 people may have some form of face blindness. Considering India’s huge population, this number is expected to be nearly 20 million people. Yet, until now, there wasn’t a tool to examine such individuals in our country, she added.
A battery of tests is available in other countries to assess facial recognition abilities, with the Cambridge Face Memory Test long regarded as the gold standard. These neurological exams assign each candidate a score between 0 and 100—most people with average face recognition skills fall around the mid-range, while significantly lower or higher scores may indicate face blindness or super recognition. However, even with adaptations, the Cambridge test failed to capture the diverse cultural and perceptual landscape of Indian faces, Mohite pointed out.
“In our pilot study using the modified Cambridge Test, most participants scored nearly 100 percent,” she explained. “This either means they’re all super recognisers—which is highly unlikely—or the test isn’t sensitive enough to distinguish individuals with exceptionally strong abilities.”
These results prompted the two neuroscientists to develop a tool tailored to Indian needs. In just over six months, they not only built the Indian Face Memory Test but also conducted a successful pilot with 30 participants from the IISc, identifying two individuals with face blindness.
But they don’t intend to stop here. “The current numbers aren’t enough to predict a reliable trend, as the data comes only from our institutional campus,” Mohite said. The researchers now plan to expand their reach beyond Bengaluru, taking the test to communities across India and including a wider range of age groups, genders, and cultural backgrounds. The goal is to gather more representative data on the prevalence of face blindness in the country’s diverse population.
Instead of bringing participants to their research facility in Bengaluru, they want to take the tool to the people, wherever they are. To make this possible, they’re developing the test with just a few taps on their phones. This, they hope, will offer a clearer and more inclusive picture of how Indians perceive faces.
Face blindness—whether present from birth or caused by brain injury—currently has no cure. But simply knowing about the condition can go a long way. For those affected, learning to rely on non-facial cues like voice, hairstyle, clothing, body language, or context can offer practical coping strategies. Strengthening these skills can ease daily interactions and reduce the mental strain. Just as importantly, greater awareness can help build a more empathetic society—one that understands the invisible challenges and meets them with patience, not judgment.