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Brain Region That Recognizes Faces Keeps Growing in Adulthood (engadget.com)

Posted by msmash on from the brain-science dept.

An anonymous reader shares an Engadget report: Neurologists thought that your brain was basically set once you hit early childhood, but researchers from Stanford have discovered one part that keeps growing. Using new MRI imaging techniques, they found that the "fusiform gyrus," which is mostly responsible for recognizing human faces, keeps expanding well after other regions have stopped. The research could lead to more sophisticated cellular analysis of the brain and help patients with a disorder called "facial blindness." Normally, our brain actually loses neurons between early childhood and puberty in a process called "pruning." That applies to visual parts of the brain that identify things like cityscape or hallways, but not faces. The researchers used two different MRI machines to scan both brain activity and density in two different parts of the brain: the region responsible for identifying faces, and an area used for other types of visual recognition. They then compared those structures in the brains of children (aged five to 12) to adults between 22 to 28. It turned out that adults had thicker fusiform gyrus regions than kids, different levels of proteins and cells and more activity. By contrast, the other visual regions showed lower levels of development.

4 of 47 comments (clear)

  1. What an odd coincidence... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    "Fusiform Gyrus" is my porn name.

  2. Not for me by Opportunist · · Score: 3, Funny

    I can't remember faces to save my life. It's great, you get to meet a lot of new people every day...

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    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    1. Re:Not for me by Jason+Levine · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I can remember random movie lines from films and TV shows I saw decades ago, but faces and names drop through my brain like water through a sieve. I've gotten very good at faking knowing who a person is, but I still have trip-up moments where I need to ask my wife who a person was.

      "That was Jenny. Don't you remember? We saw her, her husband Tom, and their kids Jane and Billy on June 3rd three years ago while shopping for clothes. We talked for 30 minutes about how our children were doing in school. Remember now?"

      I never remember it. I have no clue how my wife retains all that "social information." My brain just doesn't seem to be built for that.

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    2. Re:Not for me by ColdWetDog · · Score: 2

      A more interesting experiment would be to take an adult that doesn't recall faces well and then train them. There are a number of mental tricks that some people who's livelihood depends on social graces use to help remember people. Scan the brain before and after. See if there is enough change to be visible on the fMRI.

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