Why can some people never forget a face while others can't recognize their own family?

The answer

Face recognition spans an extraordinary spectrum. Prosopagnosia (face blindness) affects approximately 2.5% of the population, caused by dysfunction in the fusiform face area (FFA) - a brain region specialized for facial processing. People with severe prosopagnosia cannot recognize spouses or children by face, relying instead on voice, gait, or clothing. At the opposite extreme, 'super recognizers' - approximately 1-2% of people - can identify faces seen briefly years earlier with near-perfect accuracy. London's Metropolitan Police established a dedicated Super Recognizer Unit in 2015 that identified 2,500 suspects from CCTV footage, outperforming facial recognition software. Face recognition ability is 39% heritable according to twin studies. The FFA develops between ages 6-12 and responds to faces within 170 milliseconds - one of the fastest perceptual processes in the brain.