James Cooke, 64, a resident of Islip, Long Island, is one of the estimated six to eight million people in the United States who have prosopagnosia. Also called "faceblindness," prosopagnosia is a neurological disorder by which people are unable to recognize human faces. It can be congenital or caused by a brain injury, and there is neither cure nor therapy for it. Despite the fact that it affects an estimated two to two and a half percent of the world population, the condition is little known. As neurologist and writer Oliver Sacks put it: "For these people, who have difficulty recognizing their husbands, wives, children, teachers, and colleagues, there is still no official recognition or public understanding."
