TheSquealer

This isn't uncommon. The real question that you should be asking is did you have a mini-stroke or have something going on that is causing/caused damage to these regions. If you believe you have this problem, you should see a doctor asap. I didn't read the link, but i've read enough to know that there are a few ways this happens and a few possible areas that can be affected, causing the same end result... there are areas that specialize in recognizing faces alone, in visual patterns etc.

Also, it happens that what you experience is not that you can't "recognize" the face, but that you are not experiencing any appropriate emotion when you see someone you should recognize, causing a sense that you must not know them. This happens often as well (other forms of agnosia) - where you might see your mother, not experience the appropriate flashes of emotion and become convinced she's not really your mother, but someone pretending to be your mother... then of course, if she calls, you process things correctly through unaffected auditory pathways and everything is fine and normal. Our visual processing systems are quite complicated and involve over 30 areas of the brain that just process sight alone (almost 1/3 of our brain dedicated to this), in addition to all the other interrelated systems and feedback loops to check/recheck information against memories, intuition, intuition, emotional feelings etc.

You have no issues with recognizing people on the phone because you are recognizing them through the auditory processing systems which is not related to the currently affected area.

You really do need to see a specialist and have this looked at ASAP. Though it might not affect you in a big way, you are in fact, describing brain damage.

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