Face Recognition Needs 3 Areas Of Human Brain

sushant_bhatia_progr writes "Nature has an article on the recent discovery that face recognition in humans targets 3 areas of the human brain. Using mugshots of celebrities, Pia Rotshtein at University College London and her colleagues have shown that there are at least three separate areas for processing and recognising faces. One processes the physical features of the face, one decides whether or not the face is known, and a third retrieves information about that person, such as their name. Rothstein's team used a computer to create a series of images in which the countenance of film star Marilyn Monroe gradually morphed into that of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, or that of James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan transformed into current prime minister Tony Blair."

Comments

Re:mugshots?

[deletedaccount]

Haven't you worked it out yet? It doesn't matter where they come from, All politicians are crooks.

What is the point?

[m-laboratories]

True it is no surprise that the three intuitive components of face recognition (see, recognize, identify) show activation in different regions of the brain. But these type of "it's obvious & intuitive" comments follow many scientific discoveries, especially those in psychology, and entirely miss the point of the experimental method - to prove (or disprove) those intuitions.

interesting thought experiment; bad practice

[Doc Ruby]

The problem with such a racist is not their thoughtcrime, failing to recognize racial differences, but their actions. If they can't (or won't) notice differences among individuals of other races, that's they're problem. When they burn these people's houses down, beat them in nightclubs, refuse to hire them, or do other bad things, it doesn't really matter that their facial recognition is wired wrong.

When we make thoughts illegal, we're faced with legislating people's minds. Not only politically catastrophic in a free society, but probably medically irresponsible to pretend we are in control of all the results. We have a flawed, but much more successful, history of managing behavior. We should stick to what we know until we've improved it to adequacy, before messing with minds and all the worse consequences at stake.

Who needs a fancy computer?

[dkleinsc]

the countenance of film star Marilyn Monroe gradually morphed into that of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher

You don't need computers for that. You just need to wake up next to someone you don't remember meeting.

For more information on the subject, listen to the song "9 Coronas".