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When a person can't recognize faces due to some damage in the brain, it is called prosopagnosia.

When a person can't recognize colors due to some damage in the cerebral cortex, it is called cerebral achromatopsia (a type of color blindness, different from color blindess that is resulted by the abnormalities in the cells of the retina).

So is there a technical term for the disorder of not being able to recognize voices due to certain damage in the brain? [Can't know who is speaking just from hearing but do understand the content]

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Some kind of Amusia ? – mplungjan Jan 14 at 8:26
@mplungjan yeah I think so. – user19341 Jan 14 at 8:27
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You might be interested in Cognitive Sciences. – Matt Эллен Jan 14 at 8:49

1 Answer

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An inability to recognise sounds is auditory agnosia of which amusia is a subset.

The auditory equivalent of prosopagnosia is phonagnosia:

Phonagnosia is a type of agnosia, or loss of knowledge, that involves a disturbance in the recognition of familiar voices and the impairment of voice discrimination abilities. Phonagnosia is the auditory equivalent of Prosopagnosia.

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Great answer! Auditory agnosia is a nice term to know. But sorry I was being ambiguous just now. I was actually looking for a term for the disorder of not being able to recognize who the voices belong to. I'm not sure if such disorder exists.. It is a bit like prosopagnosia, but instead of face perception, it is voice perception. – user19341 Jan 14 at 8:41
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@Arch Found the right answer. My guess at echosagnosia wasn't too far off. – Andrew Leach Jan 14 at 11:21

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