Woman Unable To Recognize Voices, Unless It's Sean Connery

A 60-year-old British woman is suffering from a neurological defect that is sure to put her in the next version of "The Man who Mistook His Wife for a Hat." She is unable to recognize any voice she hears — any voice, that is, but Sean Connery's. Unless she sees the face of the person speaking, she has no idea who is talking to her, even her daughter and co-worker's voices are unrecognizable. Dr. Brad Duchaine at University College London, thinks she might have the first documented case of vocal prosopagnosia, a condition which makes it extremely difficult for people to recognize faces. "His accent is distinctive," Duchaine explained. "And she is a British woman in her sixties ... let's say it's probable he got her attention."

Sounds similar to face blindness

[Anonymous Coward]

Saw the headline and was reminded of Prosopagnosia [wikipedia.org] (face blindness). People who have this are completely unable to recognize faces or distinguish between different faces. All they see is a collection of face parts, never the whole pattern. Totally fascinating. Apparently they have to rely on other clues to identify other people, like hairstyles, clothing, and ... voices. Crazy stuff.

I'm posting as AC because....

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm ashamed to admit that I recognize that pic as being from Zardoz. :(