In prosopometamorphopsia, parts of the faces of other people appear ‘distorted’ in shape, texture, position or colour. Some aspects and other parts of the body, however, remain undisturbed, rendering a demonic or alien-like look.

Imagine waking up one morning and going about your day, only to find that the faces of people around you have all become distorted, appearing to be ‘demonic’, with weirdly-pointy ears and a grimace-like grin. How unsettling will this experience be. It happened recently to a man in Nashville, US. According to a report in CNN, one Victor Sharrah, 59, woke up on a winter morning and sat on his couch watching TV when his roommate entered the room. “Looking at him, I’m like, ‘What am I seeing?'” he told the publication. When his roommate’s girlfriend walked in, her face appeared to be terrifying, too. He described their once-familiar faces as having a ‘grimace’, ‘elongated eyes’ and ‘deeply-etched scars’. When they looked to the side, ‘pointy ears suddenly appeared’.

‘Staring At Demons’

This experience upset him so much, Sharrah said it was like ‘staring at demons’. He went out and realised everyone’s faces were distorted and they continued to look the same. “Imagine waking up one morning and suddenly everybody in the world looks like a creature in a horror movie,” he told CNN.

Prosopometamorphopsia Diagnosis

It appears that the man has a rare condition called prosopometamorphopsia, or PMO. “I helped create a computer-generated 2D picture of what I see in faces, but there is so much more to it,” Sharrah was quoted as saying. Research on his case was published in the ‘Clinical Pictures’ section of The Lancet, which is a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal.

“What people don’t understand from a picture is that the distorted face is moving, contorting, talking to you, making facial gestures. It does kind of distance me from other people a bit. I try not to let it because I know what it is, it is PMO. Yet, I feel like I am not getting as close to people as I used to,” the patient said.

What Is Prosopometamorphopsia?

In PMO, parts of the faces of other people appear ‘distorted’ in shape, texture, position or colour. Some aspects and other parts of the body, however, remain undisturbed, rendering a demonic or alien-like look.

The Lancet reported that the patient said the distortions — severely stretched features of the face, with deep grooves on the forehead, cheeks, and chin — were present on every person’s face he encountered, but no distortions were present when he looked at inanimate objects like houses or cars. The patient also said even though the faces were distorted, he was still able to recognise who they were.

Interestingly, the man reported no distortions when viewing facial images on a screen or on paper.

Treatment

According to sciencenews.org, if it is properly diagnosed, neurologists may be able to treat the condition that is causing the PMO, like seizures or a stroke. But, the specific mechanism behind the distortions remains unknown. They sometimes affect people with no apparent underlying conditions.