How The Brain Recognizes Faces

This piece, by Mariano Frare-Finnerty, was published on 02/25/25. The original text, by Kanwisher et al., was published by the Journal of Neuroscience on 06/01/1997.

This study meticulously utilized Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to investigate the fusiform gyrus, a specific brain region known for its activation during face perception. The researchers consistently found the Fusiform Face Area (FFA) active when subjects viewed faces rather than everyday objects. Multiple tests were conducted to ensure the FFA's selective involvement in face perception, ruling out other brain areas that may be part of the face-processing process. 

In their research, 12 out of 15 subjects had their right fusiform gyrus respond more strongly to faces when compared with other everyday objects. This study confirmed previous beliefs that activation within this part of the brain was integral to brain processing. To verify their results even further, researchers designed a series of experiments. In one experiment, the FFA was more active when the subjects viewed intact two-tone faces compared to scrambled versions, emphasizing further that this part of the brain is responsible for brain processing and recognition. 

In another experiment, the FFA responded more strongly to faces than to images of houses, further reinforcing the idea that brain function was not just simply recognizing different examples of a single object category. Further experiments compared the brain's response to pictures of faces and hands with external facial features such as hair being concealed. In this experiment, the FFA responded more to faces, confirming that this part of the brain was explicitly focused on facial structures. Last, the experimenters completed a matching task that required one to distinguish between consecutive faces or images of hands. In this experiment, the FFA was significantly more active, which ruled out explanations based on attentional engagement. 

The FFA was consistently activated in the right fusiform gyrus, which aligned with previous research on face perception and recognition. In these experiments, the superior temporal sulcus (STS) was also activated, indicating face selectivity. This finding aligned with studies on macaque monkeys, which identified face-responsive neurons in similar locations, suggesting that face perception may be relatively similar across primates. Aside from this, these findings indicate that the human brain has dedicated neural structures for processing faces. Aside from providing insightful knowledge into human facial processing, these findings also have potential clinical applications, such as doctors being able to understand conditions such as (face blindness), where people lose the ability to recognize faces due to brain damage.

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