Do n’t get too creeped out , but there are a whole lot of people walking around decent now with a map of your face in their brains . But at least it ’s a two - manner street — you have their faces mapped in yours , too . That ’s the conclusion of a recent report published in the journalCortex .
societal animate being calculate on being able to recognize one another . All monkeys might look the same to you , but you may be trusted that they can tell each other apart . The same is true for human beings . The ability to identify another individual is a vital part of social fundamental interaction , which is an essential part of our lives .
For that reason , our brains seem to devote a lot of tangible estate to facial credit . Scientists believe that most of the work of facialperceptionhappens in two brain sections : the occipital cheek area ( OFA ) and the fusiform face area ( FFA ) . But it was n’t absolved how those realm managed recognition .
One group of investigator believes they ’ve found out . The new report describe a phenomenon the authors call “ faciotopy , ” or face map .
mathematical function is nothing newfangled for our nous . Each part of your body is be in toy on the outer layer of your brain . The system of the body office in your nous mirror their actual arrangement in your body , a mental representation known as thecortical manikin .
The source say faciotopy acts the same room , by etching a little version of a person ’s brass on your OFA and FFA . They concluded this after an experiment in which they showed people delineation of mouths , noses , and other facial features while scan their brains . The CAT scan expose a sight of natural process in one specific area of the OFA , and some action in another segment of the FFA . The layout of these region seemed to mirror the organization of features on a human look .
If the researchers are correct , they have found the first mapping action in the wit that relates to the external world .
Lead author Linda Henriksson was not surprised by her team ’s findings . “ Facial recognition is so fundamental to human behaviour that it makes sense that there would be a specialized surface area of the brain that maps features of the face , ” she toldNew Scientist .
