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A British woman has been diagnosed with a rare condition which means she is unable to recognise any voices except that of former James Bond actor Sir Sean Connery.
The 60-year-old is the first known case of someone born with phonagnosia, which has left her unable to identify anyone speaking on the telephone or the radio.
She does not even recognise her own daughter's voice when she rings and has used a system of codewords to identify relatives and friends who call.
Until now, phonagnosia has been known only in those who have suffered strokes or brain damage. Researchers are urging other people to come forward if they think they have also grown up with the condition.
In a series of tests, the businesswoman, named only as KH, was unable to pick out the tones of a whole series of well-known people including posh actress Joanna Lumley, David Beckham and ex-PM Margaret Thatcher. However, the only voice she could identify was the Scottish burr of actor Sir Sean Connery, star of James Bond hits including Dr No.
Dr Brad Duchaine of University College London (UCL) who is studying her case, said: "Voice recognition may not seem as important as face recognition, given that failing to recognise someone in front of you can cause much more social anxiety than not recognising them over the phone. Yet we rely on voice recognition in our day-to-day lives, to identify people on the phone or those speaking on the radio.2
KH contacted a science magazine which put her in touch with UCL after she read a report on prosopagnosia, the inability to recognise faces.
Dr Duchaine added: "Occasionally, people have experienced problems recognising voices following a stroke or brain damage, but this is the first documented case of someone growing up with this condition.
"We suspect that there are other people out there with similar problems, and we'd like to get in touch with them."
Dr Duchaine and Lucia Garrido of the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience presented KH with a series of tasks involving the recognition of faces, voices, vocal emotions, speech perception and music.
They observed that KH struggled to recognise the voices of famous actors and politicians, and also had difficulty learning and recognising new voices.
Compared to a control group of volunteers, nearly all of whom identified the voices of Margaret Thatcher, David Beckham, Dawn French, Chris Tarrant, Joanna Lumley, Sean Connery and Ann Widdecombe, KH was only able to identify the voice of Sean Connery. However, KH performed well on nearly all other tasks.
Phonagnosia has only been documented so far in people with brain lesions in the right hemisphere following a stroke or brain damage, and the mechanisms behind it are not well understood.
In the case of KH, a MRI brain scan showed no evidence of brain damage in regions associated with voice or auditory perception, and her hearing abilities were found to be normal.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/health/3283767/Woman-cannot-recognise-any-voice-except-Sir-Sean-Connery.html
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The 60-year-old is the first known case of someone born with phonagnosia, which has left her unable to identify anyone speaking on the telephone or the radio.
She does not even recognise her own daughter's voice when she rings and has used a system of codewords to identify relatives and friends who call.
Until now, phonagnosia has been known only in those who have suffered strokes or brain damage. Researchers are urging other people to come forward if they think they have also grown up with the condition.
In a series of tests, the businesswoman, named only as KH, was unable to pick out the tones of a whole series of well-known people including posh actress Joanna Lumley, David Beckham and ex-PM Margaret Thatcher. However, the only voice she could identify was the Scottish burr of actor Sir Sean Connery, star of James Bond hits including Dr No.
Dr Brad Duchaine of University College London (UCL) who is studying her case, said: "Voice recognition may not seem as important as face recognition, given that failing to recognise someone in front of you can cause much more social anxiety than not recognising them over the phone. Yet we rely on voice recognition in our day-to-day lives, to identify people on the phone or those speaking on the radio.2
KH contacted a science magazine which put her in touch with UCL after she read a report on prosopagnosia, the inability to recognise faces.
Dr Duchaine added: "Occasionally, people have experienced problems recognising voices following a stroke or brain damage, but this is the first documented case of someone growing up with this condition.
"We suspect that there are other people out there with similar problems, and we'd like to get in touch with them."
Dr Duchaine and Lucia Garrido of the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience presented KH with a series of tasks involving the recognition of faces, voices, vocal emotions, speech perception and music.
They observed that KH struggled to recognise the voices of famous actors and politicians, and also had difficulty learning and recognising new voices.
Compared to a control group of volunteers, nearly all of whom identified the voices of Margaret Thatcher, David Beckham, Dawn French, Chris Tarrant, Joanna Lumley, Sean Connery and Ann Widdecombe, KH was only able to identify the voice of Sean Connery. However, KH performed well on nearly all other tasks.
Phonagnosia has only been documented so far in people with brain lesions in the right hemisphere following a stroke or brain damage, and the mechanisms behind it are not well understood.
In the case of KH, a MRI brain scan showed no evidence of brain damage in regions associated with voice or auditory perception, and her hearing abilities were found to be normal.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/health/3283767/Woman-cannot-recognise-any-voice-except-Sir-Sean-Connery.html
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