%0 Journal Article %J Science %D 2021 %T A fast link between face perception and memory in the temporal pole %A Landi, Sofia M. %A Viswanathan, Pooja %A Serene, Stephen %A W. A. Freiwald %X

The question of how the brain recognizes the faces of familiar individuals has been important throughout the history of neuroscience. Cells linking visual processing to person memory have been proposed, but not found. Here we report the discovery of such cells through recordings from an fMRI-identified area in the macaque temporal pole. These cells responded to faces when they were personally familiar. They responded non-linearly to step-wise changes in face visibility and detail, and holistically to face parts, reflecting key signatures of familiar face recognition. They discriminated between familiar identities, as fast as a general face identity area. The discovery of these cells establishes a new pathway for the fast recognition of familiar individuals.

%B Science %P eabi6671 %8 07/2021 %G eng %U https://www.sciencemag.org/lookup/doi/10.1126/science.abi6671 %! Science %R 10.1126/science.abi6671 %0 Journal Article %J Science %D 2017 %T Two areas for familiar face recognition in the primate brain %A Landi, Sofia M. %A W. A. Freiwald %X

Familiarity alters face recognition: Familiar faces are recognized more accurately than unfamiliar ones and under difficult viewing conditions when unfamiliar face recognition fails. The neural basis for this fundamental difference remains unknown. Using whole-brain functional magnetic resonance imaging, we found that personally familiar faces engage the macaque face-processing network more than unfamiliar faces. Familiar faces also recruited two hitherto unknown face areas at anatomically conserved locations within the perirhinal cortex and the temporal pole. These two areas, but not the core face-processing network, responded to familiar faces emerging from a blur with a characteristic nonlinear surge, akin to the abruptness of familiar face recognition. In contrast, responses to unfamiliar faces and objects remained linear. Thus, two temporal lobe areas extend the core face-processing network into a familiar face-recognition system.

%B Science %V 357 %P 591 - 595 %8 08/2017 %G eng %U http://www.sciencemag.org/lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aan1139 %N 6351 %! Science %& 591 %R 10.1126/science.aan1139