Voice Blind

You know that sound. You know exactly when your mother just called to ask where you were. You know that voice; it’s your best friend asking you out to a party. And yes, you know that automated voicemail your principal leaves when you’re late to school. Even if the caller is a total stranger; man, woman, child, teenager, you’d know. Unfortunately, Steve didn’t. Steve Royster was a boy growing up in the peaceful atmosphere of Northern Virginia. He was a normal boy, he good grades, played sports and picked up phones. What he was oblivious to was the fact that he had phonagnosia. Phonagnosia is a very rare and strange disorder where you couldn’t distinguish a man’s voice from a woman’s. That’s just what happened to Steve. He’d pick up the phone and feel awkward as he couldn’t even tell it was his mother speaking to him. “It’s not that every voice sounds the same, it’s just that hearing someone’s voice doesn’t bring that person to mind.” Steve explains. Phonagnosia researcher Diana Sidtis explains that the part of the brain that allows people to distinguish things like age, gender or emotion in a voice is different from whether or not you have anything associated with the speaker. Unfortunately for Steve, that part of the brain is damaged. Often times Steve has to fake it and go along with the speaker until they drop a hint as to who they are. Luckily, this disorder is but a minor annoyance to Steve. He didn’t even know he had phonagnosia until he was 27 working in an office.

Studying disorders is biology. This pertains to biology because we are studying the way we live and how some of us are a little different from other people. This is about the damaged part of the brain that is able to associate what you hear with things you personally know.

In life, there are many disorders. Some are very old while others are just being discovered. While some are very light hearted, such as phonagnosia, others are fairly dangerous, like Anorexia. It is very important to know what’s wrong with you and properly diagnose it. Indeed, Steve here got off the hook easier than dear old B Spears.