Phonagnosia, also known as “voice blindness,” is a disorder that allows a person to hear every characteristic of someone else’s voice, including whether it is male, female, young, old, or happy or sad. The only thing a phonagnosic can’t recognize is who the voice belongs to, according to an article in The Boston Globe.
Diana Sidtis, phonagnosia researcher, says the area of the brain that allows someone to distinguish different voice characteristics is separate from the part that can tell if the voice is personally relevant to him. In those that have phonagnosia, this part of the brain is damaged, making voice recognition impossible.
View ‘Voice Blind’ Man Befuddled by Mysterious Callers in its entirety.
