Brain Cells Accountable for Facial Recognition – Discovered!

Ever realized what makes you get the visual flashback of a very familiar face? Scientists have long been trying to find such brain cells responsible for visual sensory perception and memory. In the light of this research, an idea of a hypothetical neuron (brain cell) called "grandmother neuron" was proposed in the 1960s. These neurons consist of a theoretical brain cell that would code for a specific, complex concept, all by itself, such as the memory of one's grandmother (dearest one). This was an attempt to tackle the mystery of long-term memories in the brain.

The scientists at Rockefeller University have revealed a class of neurons in a specific part of the brain – temporal pole (TP) region that links the perception of familiar faces to long-term memory, as per their study published in the journal Science.

"When I was coming up in neuroscience, if you wanted to ridicule someone's argument you would dismiss it as 'just another grandmother neuron' – a hypothetical that could not exist. Now, in an obscure and understudied corner of the brain, we have found the closest thing to a grandmother neuron: cells capable of linking face perception to memory," says Winrich Freiwald, professor of neurosciences and behavior at The Rockefeller University.

New Memory Cells

The team utilized functional magnetic resonance imaging to record the electrical signals of TP neurons as the macaques (monkeys) watched images of familiar faces (which they had seen in-person) and unfamiliar faces (that they had only seen virtually, on a screen).

It was found that neurons in the TP region act like memory cells as they were highly selective, and responded to familiar faces threefold more strongly than unfamiliar ones.

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"This may point to the importance of knowing someone in person. Given the tendency nowadays to go virtual, it is important to note that faces that we have seen on a screen may not evoke the same neuronal activity as faces that we meet in-person," says neuroscientist Sofia Landi, first author on the paper.

The discovery of this new class of visual memory cells further sets a path to explore its role concerning the other parts of the brain. This may hold clinical importance in conditions like prosopagnosia, or face blindness and help devise strategies for these patients.

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Source-Medindia