Hiii, Mmmm… what was your name again?
Hi guys, Lissette here for DNews.
It’s happened to all of us - we’re at the sandwich shop and run into an acquaintance
that we met once before at a dinner party - and we know we know them, but can’t remember
their name.
As embarrassed as you might feel, you should perhaps instead marvel at the fact that you
remember them at all - having seen their face only once before.
Humans are phenomenal at remembering faces.
Face processing is super-fast, efficient, and incredibly useful.
We use it to recognize people, but also to identify their emotional states, communicate
with them, and figure out where they’re looking.
These are all evolutionarily advantageous because they help us determine how to behave
towards other people as well as how to respond to our surroundings.
And scientists have found that processing faces, specifically, works differently than
processing other things we see.
When we look at something, our eyes take in visual information through the retina and
then send it to the occipital cortex.
Where it goes from there, depends on what you’re looking at.
With faces, there are multiple areas that seem to be responsible for processing: primarily
the inferotemporal cortex, fusiform face area, occipital face area, and the superior temporal
sulcus.
They’re each involved in slightly different functions, that together, help us process
faces.
The occipital face area seems to be involved in recognizing parts of faces - like a nose,
eyes, or mouth - whereas the fusiform face area seems to configure these parts to help
us figure out it if it’s a face or just some lonely Mr.Potato part leftover from your
little cousins play session.
We know this because of studies - like this one conducted by neuroscientists from the
University of Louvain, Belgium.
They used FMRI technology to compare activity of different brain regions as they respond
to images of either facial features or full faces...
And, as one would predict, found that the occipital face area lit up more with individual
features than with full faces.
Once we know it’s a face we’re looking at, the superior temporal sulcus seems to
help us determine its emotions - whether the person is sad, angry, happy - It also seems
to help us read lips to help determine what’s being said.
Think of being in a loud crowded bar - our STS is super helpful with that.
One main way researchers have been able to figure this out is by studying people who
have suffered brain injury - like a stroke - and who have lost their ability to perceive
faces - a condition called prosopagnosia.
By looking at which areas are damaged, scientists get clues about what those areas are responsible
for.
But, more recently, a team at Stanford was able to specifically induce the loss of facial
recognition by stimulating the brain.
In their study published in the Journal of Neuroscience, researchers implanted electrodes
on a patient’s brain - he was suffering from epilepsy so this was medically necessary
for his treatment - it wasn’t just a case of hey let’s cut you open to find out more
about face perception.
But it did present the opportunity to learn more about it.
The researchers found that when they interrupted normal activity by sending low grade electrical
pulses to two specific nerve clusters in the fusiform gyrus, the patient lost his ability
to see faces.
He explained that the doctor’s face warped, was unrecognizable, and his features seemed
to melt.
But he could still see everything else clearly.
So it’s pretty clear that our brains have specialized tools for facial recognition.
But this doesn’t mean this system is perfect.
We’re much better at recognizing faces that are familiar versus unfamiliar.
Anthony runs down the many reasons why your memory is flawed, in this episode here.
What do you
do when you know you know someone but can’t their name?
Do you have any tips you’d like to share with us?
Share your thoughts in the comments and remember to subscribe so you never miss an episode
of DNews.
Thanks for watching.