Facial recognition is an extremely important part of our daily lives. Without it, we wouldn't be able to recognize our friends and family. In fact, we wouldn't even be able to recognize ourselves. Our brain's ability to use facial recognition is probably due to the significance of different faces in our daily social lives. Faces are not processed in the same manner that objects are. As humans, we have a very complex way of processing human faces. "Shortly after birth, infants demonstrate a looking preference for faces and face-like patterns" (Guy). As babies, humans develop the ability to differentiate not only between humans and objects, but also among different human faces.
In a study performed by Maggie W. Guy, infants were examined to determine the "cortical development of specialized face processing" (Guy). Guy studied 48 different 4.5-7.5 month old infants by recording their ERPs when the infants were looking at faces and toys. They then observed the cortical source of the ERP signals. She was able to determine that the N290 and P400 ERPs spiked during times of attention, compared to times of inattention. N290 spiked even higher when the infants were paying attention to faces, while P400 spiked even higher when paying attention to toys. An even greater spike was observed in the N290 ERP when paying attention to familiar faces rather than unfamiliar faces. The source of the N290 ERP was determined to be the middle fusiform gyrus in the occipital-temporal area of the brain. "Overall, these findings suggest that as infant face processing becomes increasingly specialized, so does the N290 response" (Guy).
Scientists have now been able to find that some people have far better facial recognition skills than others. They call these people "super-recognisers" (Bobak). They say that "...they claim to recognise faces which they have only briefly been seen before, or have undergone substantial changes in appearance" (Bobak). Researchers generally agree that most humans recognize other faces by looking at the face as a whole, considering all the different features and their spacing from each other. Using eye-tracking techniques, it has been determined that most people spend the most time looking at other peoples' eyes during facial recognition. However, it was also determined that super-recognisers spend the most time looking at the nose. "These findings challenge existing conclusions, suggesting that it is the centre of the face, rather than the eye region, that is optimal for facial identity recognition" (Bobak). These super-recognisers can be very helpful in policing and security strategies. Many super-recognisers have actually been a part of these teams to help stop criminal activity.
Bobak, Anna K., and Sarah Bate. “Superior Face Recognition: A Very Special Super Power.” Scientific American, 2 Feb. 2016.
Guy, M., Zieber, N., & Richards, J. (2016). The Cortical Development of Specialized Face Processing in Infancy. Child Development, 87(5), 1581-1600.
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