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It sounds just like the stuff of horror movies — however for people who find themselves bothered with a uncommon dysfunction, it’s a terrifying actuality.
A condition referred to as prosopometamorphopsia (PMO) causes facial options to seem distorted, in accordance to researchers from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire.
A study revealed in The Lancet revealed {that a} 58-year-old man reported seeing faces as distorted or “demonic” for 2½ years.
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“The patient stated that the distortions — severely stretched features of the face, with deep grooves on the forehead, cheeks and chin — were present on every person’s face he encountered, but he reported no distortions when looking at objects, such as houses or cars,” the researchers wrote within the findings.
The patient didn’t see those self same distortions when two-dimensional faces on printed paper or digital screens.
Computer-generated pictures of the distortions of a male face, prime, and feminine face, backside, as perceived by a 58-year-old patient in a brand new study. (A. Mello et al.)
Still, regardless of the distortions, the patient reported that he was ready to acknowledge folks.
After the researchers confirmed the person some pictures on a display screen of an individual, they then had him examine the photographs with that very same individual’s precise face.
The patient offered suggestions on the variations he perceived between the 2 — and the researchers used laptop software program to edit the {photograph} to seize what he was seeing.
“Through the process, we were able to visualize the patient’s real-time perception of the face distortions,” mentioned Antonio Mello, a PhD scholar in psychological and mind sciences at Dartmouth who labored on the study, in a press launch.
“This suggests that the brain’s way of visually ‘displaying’ faces, and the brain’s ability to recognize a person’s face, might be occurring in two different parts of the brain,” mentioned a neurologist about the study’s findings. (iStock)
Dr. Jonathan Tiu, a neurologist and assistant professor of neurology at Hackensack Meridian School of drugs in New Jersey, was not concerned within the study however reviewed the findings.
“Fascinatingly, the patient highlighted in the recent Lancet case report was still able to recognize everyone he was looking at,” Tiu instructed Fox News Digital.
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“This suggests that the brain’s way of visually ‘displaying’ faces, and the brain’s ability to recognize a person’s face, might be occurring in two different parts of the brain.”
What to know about PMO
The title of the dysfunction, prosopometamorphopsia, comes from “prosopo” (the Greek phrase for face, prosopon) and “metamorphopsia,” which refers to perceptual distortions.
Tiu described PMO as a “very uncommon visible dysfunction” that causes an individual to see visible distortions of facial options.
Experts do not totally perceive how PMO happens and who’s extra possible to expertise it.
“This can include a twisting or stretching of someone’s eyes or a visual ballooning of that person’s chin, or they might even see features where they shouldn’t be, like seeing that person’s teeth hover over their lips,” he mentioned.
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Experts do not totally perceive how PMO happens and who’s extra possible to expertise it.
“It is thought that an injury to specific parts of facial processing networks in the brain, whether it be from a stroke or tumor, can produce the symptoms of PMO,” Tiu mentioned.
Among those that are identified with PMO, it’s common for them to have been misdiagnosed in some unspecified time in the future, researchers mentioned within the study findings. (iStock)
The condition has additionally been identified to happen as an impact of migraines or seizures, however typically it comes on with none identifiable trigger.
PMO could be very uncommon, with fewer than 100 documented instances, in accordance to the neurologist.
There are several types of PMO, as famous in a separate article revealed by senior creator Brad Duchaine, a professor of psychological and mind sciences at Dartmouth.
“It’s a problem that people often don’t understand.”
The two commonest varieties are full-face prosopometamorphopsia (full-face PMO) and hemi-prosopometamorphopsia (hemi-PMO), he famous.
Most instances final just a few days or even weeks.
Some sufferers, nevertheless, proceed seeing the distortions for years.
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Among the individuals who have had PMO, it’s common for them to have been misdiagnosed in some unspecified time in the future, the researchers acknowledged within the study findings.
“We’ve heard from multiple people with PMO that they have been diagnosed by psychiatrists as having schizophrenia and put on anti-psychotics, when their condition is a problem with the visual system,” Duchaine mentioned within the launch.
In one study from 2021 that reviewed 81 people with PMO, the authors discovered that there was full or just about full restoration in additional than half of the reported instances. (iStock)
“And it’s not uncommon for people who have PMO to not tell others about their problem with face perception because they fear others will think the distortions are a sign of a psychiatric disorder,” he added.
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For those that have the condition, the optimum remedy ought to be tailor-made to the underlying explanation for the symptom, Tiu famous.
In one study from 2021 that reviewed 81 people with PMO, the authors discovered that there was full or just about full restoration in additional than half of the reported instances, he identified.
“Of those who recovered, the PMO resolved quickly within days to weeks,” Tiu mentioned.
The facial processing networks that contain PMO could also be in part of the mind that has typically good potential for restoration.
“However, some patients took years to recover, and in a group of patients, the symptoms did not demonstrate any improvement.”
The study authors concluded that the facial processing networks that contain PMO could also be in part of the mind that has typically good potential for restoration, Tiu added.
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The Dartmouth researchers expressed hope that this newest study will assist increase consciousness of the uncommon however impactful condition.
As Duchaine added, “It’s a problem that people often don’t understand.”
Fox News Digital contacted the researchers for added remark.
For extra Health articles, go to www.foxnews.com/well being.
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