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."

Comments

XKCD is always almost relevent.

[PhasmatisApparatus]

Could this be related to Freemanic Paracusia?

Miss Moneypenny?

[eviloverlordx]

Ish that you?

Slashdot confused?

[gblackwo]

As funny as this may sound in the headline, it does appear to potentially be a legitimate and interesting medical condition. Why was this posted in Idle? We see crap every day that should have been put in Idle, but i'm not sure if this is the case.

Re:Slashdot confused?

[kpreslan]

It's probably in idle because that's the only way they could justify that horrible picture of Sean Connery in his panties.

Re:Slashdot confused?

[MaxwellEdison]

You shouldn't be sho quick to critishizhe my choishe of wardrobe. Red rubber pantiesh happen to be exsheedingly shlimming, you inshenshitive clod.

So..

[UncleWilly]

So, how is retirement, Lois?http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois_Maxwell/

Sounds similar to face blindness

[Anonymous Coward]

Saw the headline and was reminded of Prosopagnosia (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.

Re:Sounds similar to face blindness

[geekgirlandrea]

There are two different types of prosopagnosia: apperceptive prosopagnosia, which is what the OP was describing, and associational prosopagnosia, which is more like not being able to use faces to query one's memory. I have the latter, and if I'm looking at a face I can parse it and work out age, gender, etc., which someone with apperceptive prosopagnosia typically can't do, but I can't make any associations with faces as such at all. I have to explicitly observe and notice features and make associations with those to recognize people. I usually end up going on hairstyles, with a somewhat limited success rate.

I'm pretty bad with voices too, although not as bad as I am with faces or as bad as the woman in the article. For what it's worth, I just had my first bug-fix (a race condition in arch/sparc64/kernel/trampoline.S) accepted into the kernel source a few weeks ago, so I guess I fit your definition of a Real Nerd.

Re:Sounds similar to face blindness

[geekgirlandrea]

Meh. That's only actually happened to me once, and the person in question was (probably) joking. Anyway, to extend your list:

• Lesbian. Check
• Has the exact same geek girl fetish most of the men here have, but would never *admit* to having looked at someone's homepage link for that reason. Check
• Involved with someone (who fits most of your list too). Check
• Writes code with above-referenced someone. Check
• Sometimes gets drawn into Linux vs. OpenBSD arguments with said someone. Check
• Really enjoys doing this to Slashdotters. Check

Is that picture really necessary?

[Sponge Bath]

I think we have all seen enough of Sarah Palin.

"I'll take 'The Penis MIghtier', Alex..."

[MetaPhyzx]

Nuff said.

Re:Slashdot confused? Why not?

[davidsyes]

Why not? Apparently, HIS word is HER bond... LOL!

Transcript of Diagnostic Session:

[Fieryphoenix]

Researcher: And who is speaking now?
George W. Bush declares the Axis of Evil
Patient: Sean Connery!
Researcher: And who is speaking now?
Tiny Tim sings Tiptoe through the Tulips
Patient: Sean Connery!
Researcher: And who is speaking now?
Miss Piggy takes Kermit to task
Patient: Sean Connery!
Researcher: And who is speaking now?
Roaring Elephants and Chimpanzees howling
Patient: Sean Connery!
Researcher: And who is speaking now?
Sean Connery declares "There can be only one"
Patient: Sean Connery!
Researcher: Amazing! She can only recognize a voice if it is Sean Connery!

Re:Picture

[dilvish_the_damned]

Please excuse me when I say, 'What the fuckety fuck fuck is that picture from?'

Your closet most likely.