Man diagnosed with demon face syndrome in the United States; understand the disease

American Victor Sharrah, 58, was diagnosed with “demon face syndrome”. Also known as prosopometamorphopsia or PMO, the condition alters the person’s visual perception. Thus, causing her to see others with a modified appearance, including shape, size, texture or color.

Contrary to what many may think, researchers claim that changes in the visual perception of these patients are not related to delusional beliefs about the person they encountered. Above all, the diagnosis can be confused with schizophrenia. Even though the trigger for the condition has not yet been identified, it is usually caused by some dysfunction in the brain network responsible for facial processing. It is common for the person to have suffered a traumatic brain injury, stroke, epilepsy or migraines. While others present with the condition without evident structural changes in their brains.

In Sharrah’s case, experts suspect he developed PMO years after hitting his head on a stuck door while trying to get out of his truck trailer. However, the driver also said this could have been caused by him experiencing possible carbon monoxide poisoning four months earlier.

Three years later, the American said he still sees demon faces and has practically gotten used to the condition, but still hopes it “could correct itself and disappear.” To help, he wears green lenses when walking in crowds, as this supposedly alleviates his symptoms. Experts still do not have an explanation for the phenomenon. The syndrome may only last a few days or weeks, but in some cases, the perceived distortions can last for years.

How does the person see it?

People with the disease see others with stretched mouths, pointed ears pointed upwards, slanted eyes and flared nostrils. According to Victor Sharrah, one of a reported 100 people in the world to have this condition, the images are “grotesque” and the appearance “disturbing.” However, the distortion only happens in people, objects such as furniture, houses and cars are seen normally.

In a study recently published in the scientific journal The Lancet, researchers from Dartmouth College, in the United States, created facial illustrations based on the description made by Victor Sharrah. To generate faces as he sees them, analysts asked him to describe discrepancies between photographs of individuals’ faces and the real people in front of them. Image editing software was then used to adjust the illustrations and align them with Sharrah’s descriptions.

“Through the process, we were able to visualize the patient’s perception of facial distortions in real time,” says the study’s lead author, Antônio Mello, a student in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth.