Brain Has "Face Place" for Recognition, Monkey Study Confirms
for National Geographic News |February 3, 2006| The brain of the
macaque monkey has a distinct area dedicated to recognizing
faces, according to a new study. This brain region is the first
one in any animalincluding humansfound to have nearly all of its
nerve cells focused on a specific visual form. The finding adds
weight to the theory that the brain works like a Swiss Army
knife, with separate modules set to different tasks. "When we
put an electrode in, it was clear from the very first day that
every single cell just responded to faces," said study co-leader
Doris Tsao, a neuroscientist at the Harvard Medical School in
Boston. The study is reported in today's issue of the journal
Science. Like humans, monkeys are social animals. They benefit
from recognizing other individuals in their group and from
deciphering their peers' facial expressions. (See "Babies
Recognize Faces Better Than Adults, Study Says.") Scientists
already know that humans have