Humans have the amazing ability to instantly recognize the faces of hundreds or even thousands of people they have previously met or seen in pictures or movies. Studies of people with brain injuries that render them incapable of recognizing faces and recordings of neuronal activity in people during face recognition have shown that networks in the occipital and temporal lobes adjacent to the visual cortex mediate facial recognition. Professor Bruno Rossion is at the forefront of research that is revealing the neurophysiological underpinnings of face recognition. By recording and stimulating neurons in the face recognition circuits of numerous research participants Rossion’s laboratory has elucidated how the brain captures and recalls the gestalt of a face without dwelling on specific features of the face.

LINKS:

Review articles on the neurobiology of face recognition:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9954066/pdf/brainsci-13-00354.pdf

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0028393224000800?via%3Dihub

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149763424000034?via%3Dihub