(The New Yorker) – A mysterious neurological condition makes faces look grotesque—and sheds new light on the inner workings of the brain.

In May, 2021, Duchaine interviewed Werbeloff via Zoom. Had Werbeloff suffered any traumatic brain injuries? (No.) Did he ever see faces change before his bout with mono? (No.) Did he see distortions on half of the face, or all of it? (Only the right half.) Duchaine said that Werbeloff seemed to have a rare and largely unexplained condition called prosopometamorphopsia, or PMO. He was trying to meet as many PMO sufferers as he could—not only to identify why the distortions were occurring but to illuminate the intricate way in which the human brain perceives faces.

During the Zoom call, Duchaine’s Ph.D. student Sarah Herald asked Werbeloff to stare at portrait photos for longer than he was used to. Werbeloff hadn’t realized how distended a face could become: the right side stretched until it was bulging, and the dark patch became a deep concave pit encircling the eye. After the session, Werbeloff cried. “I don’t believe in demons,” Werbeloff told me. “But I can totally understand that someone who was religious would find it a deeply religiously disturbing experience.” (Read More)