The inability to identify familiar people by their faces is called prosopagnosia. The term ‘prosopagnosia’ is derived from two Greek words prosopon meaning ‘face’ and agnosia meaning ‘not knowing’.
This condition occurs when the brain is unable to assign a set of facial features to an identity. The person might, however, be able to identify objects. It is also called face blindness and is found in 2.5 per cent of the population.
