Liz Howe suffers from a neurological condition called “prosopagnosia” otherwise known as face blindness.  Liz does not recognize faces as normal people do.  Instead, she notices other details, like clothing, hairstyle, and body language to tell one person from another.  Ironically, this deficit is what makes her such a good detective.  It’s the little details that help her solve crimes.  The following are a few links with more information about this neurological condition:

Wikipedia

Faceblind.org

CNN Article

Mirror Article

RadioLab Podcast

RadioLab Story