Failure to Recognize Famous Faces like Oprah, Bill Gates, Elvis Could be Early Sign of Dementia

Americans who are older than 40 and are unable to recognize icon and famous faces - like Elvis Presley, Oprah Winfrey and Bill Gates - are believed to have type of early-onset dementia that affects language and communication skills, according to research published Tuesday.

In research published in the journal Neurology, scientists developed a test for identifying a certain type of early dementia, which is a mental decline that occurs between the ages of 40 and 65.Researchers say the problem can be more than just a slip of memory, but a specific loss of brain function.

"People with this type of dementia consistently forget names of famous people they once knew - it's more than forgetting a name or two of a famous person," says senior author Emily Rogalski, an assistant research professor at the Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease Center at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.

Noting whether a subject fails to remember just the name, or does not recall the face at all, can also offer detail of function loss.

Dementia is an umbrella term that describes neurodegenerative diseases that cause changes in thinking abilities that interfere with daily activities, Rogalski says. Early-onset dementia, also called young-onset dementia, mostly affects people under 65 and can be caused by Alzheimer's disease, she says.

"Memory is fine, attention is fine and their planning, their judgment, their personality, their emotions - they're intact," explained Gefen, adding that early symptoms can include being unable to recall the names of familiar people or in some cases everyday objects.

"Someone will come in and say: 'I can't remember my co-worker's name. I see her every day and I cannot remember it,"' she said.

As the disease progresses, the person has difficulty speaking coherently and eventually stops talking altogether.