Bethel Professor’s Research in the News

The Star Tribune featured Associate Professor of Psychology Sherryse Corrow’s research on prosopagnosia, or face blindness.

By Suzanne McInroy, director of communications

September 17, 2019 | 10 a.m.

Associate Professor of Psychology Sherryse Corrow has studied prosopagnosia for years, but one challenge is that many people do not even know they have the condition. Often referred to as face blindness, prosopagnosia affects about 2% of the population, causing them difficulty distinguishing facial features from one person to the next.

“It’s like every day is the first day of school,” Corrow explained to a local reporter.

Recently the Star Tribune featured Corrow’s work in a front-page article, which Corrow hopes will help connect more individuals with prosopagnosia to her Visual Cognition Lab at Bethel. Corrow explains that often people will hear about prosopagnosia in the media and then wonder if it explains what they experience.

“It’s a rare population of subjects to recruit for studies,” Corrow says. “It’s hard to find people in the area with prosopagnosia, but when we do, they are often motivated to participate in studies.”

Bethel, along with Harvard University, Dartmouth College, and Boston University, are the only four universities nationally with professors developing methods to help the brain better recognize faces.

Participate in Research at Bethel.

To learn more about Corrow’s research on prosopagnosia or to participate in a study, contact Corrow through the Bethel Visual Cognition Lab.