From the moment the infant emerges from the womb, it is trying to use its eyes. Sometimes, the eyes do not at first even work in tandem. We don't usually think of eyes as having to learn to work together. We also make assumptions such as that the eyes will be able to see. When vision is normal, we assume that we will be able to tell things apart. This ability to visualize has to be learned. For most people, learning to visualize comes naturally.
We tell things apart by shape and by color, by depth and texture. But there are some things that some people cannot tell apart well, if at all. One of those things is faces--in particular, human faces. Many people, not a rare number, have some degree of prosopagnosia, also called faceblindness. Bill Choisser coined that name (http://www.choisser.com/faceblind/).
The reason for this failure to visualize is a problem in the brain. While certain areas of the brain are involved in the visualization of faces, prosopagnosia is still not well understood. Because the condition runs in families, espcially in families where one or more members has a neurological disorder like autism spectrum disorders (ASD), pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) or obsessive compulsive disorders (OCD), a genetic component is suspected.
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