All parts of the brain › Recognising faces

What part of the brain recognises faces?

Mainly the fusiform gyrus, on the underside of the temporal and occipital lobes. Its fusiform face area (in Brodmann area 37, usually larger in the right hemisphere) is needed to detect a face and tell whose it is, and it takes in a face as a whole rather than feature by feature. It works with the occipital face area on the inferior occipital gyrus, which picks out the parts of a face; the inferior temporal cortex at the end of the visual “what” stream; and the amygdala, which adds a face’s emotional weight. [1][2][3]

The fusiform face area is a region on the fusiform gyrus, not a separate shape. The 3D model has no shape for it, so the whole fusiform gyrus is lit; the region’s exact border is not drawn.

The occipital face area is a region on the occipital lobe, not a separate shape. The 3D model has no shape for it, so the whole occipital lobe is lit; the region’s exact border is not drawn.

The 3D brain needs JavaScript. The list of parts still says what each one does for recognising faces.

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All 4 parts are lit together. Drag to turn, pinch or scroll to zoom, tap a part on the brain or a name in the list to focus it; .

Recognising faces: 4 parts lit

Fusiform gyrus, occipital lobe, inferior temporal gyrus and amygdala. Tap one to see where it is and what it does.

The parts and their roles

Holds the fusiform face area (Brodmann area 37), the region most tied to faces: it supports seeing a face as a whole and is needed to detect and identify one. [1][2] Where is the fusiform gyrus?
Holds the visual cortex that first receives the image from the eyes, and on its underside the occipital face area, which picks out the parts of a face and likely works before the fusiform gyrus. [2][4] Where is the occipital lobe?
The last stage of the ventral “what” visual stream, whose main job is recognising objects; in 1972 Gross and colleagues found single cells there that respond selectively to faces. [5] Where is the inferior temporal gyrus?
Adds a face’s emotional weight: emotional faces are processed first in the amygdala and then passed to the fusiform face area, which responds more strongly to fearful faces than to neutral ones. [1][2] Where is the amygdala?

Named areas on the lit gyri

The fusiform face area, on the : The fusiform face area sits on the lateral side of the fusiform gyrus, on the underside of the temporal lobe; it is usually larger in the right hemisphere and fires more strongly for faces than for other objects. [1][2]
The occipital face area, on the : The occipital face area sits on the inferior occipital gyrus at the back of the brain; it handles the parts of a face, such as the eyes, nose and mouth, rather than the spacing between them. [2]

How they work together

The face network runs from back to front: the occipital face area handles a face’s separate parts, and the fusiform face area then takes the face in as a whole and matches it to who it is. [2]
The fusiform face area was first described by Justine Sergent in 1992 and named by Nancy Kanwisher in 1997. Faces lean to the right side: the area is usually larger in the right hemisphere, and the right fusiform gyrus matters more for faces in complex scenes; the right side is described as processing faces holistically and the left analytically. [1][2]
Gaze and expression add a third route: the superior temporal sulcus, the groove between the superior and middle temporal gyri, responds to the parts of a face and is thought to help follow where someone is looking. [2]
It is fast: adults can tell the sex of a face from a 75 ms glimpse, and face-like objects such as a “face” in a car front set off an early brain response at about 165 ms. [2][1]
It may not be only for faces: car experts and bird experts show fusiform face area activity when identifying cars and birds, and there is ongoing debate about whether the area is dedicated to faces alone or to telling apart any similar-looking things a person knows well. [1]
It develops slowly: newborns a few days old already prefer their mother’s face, yet no face-selective area was found in infants of 4 to 6 months, and the fusiform face area is not fully developed until adolescence. [1]
Honest limit: the fusiform face area and the occipital face area are functional regions, not shapes of their own on this model, so the whole fusiform gyrus and the whole occipital lobe light; the superior temporal sulcus is a groove, not a part the model draws, so it is not lit; and the model shows both sides even though faces lean to the right. [1][2]

Sources

Facts describe anatomy and normal function only. A part lit here takes part in recognising faces; it does not do it alone, and it does other jobs too. The 3D model is the adult male BodyParts3D brain (credits and licence); on it the brainstem includes the midbrain, pons and medulla, so lighting the brainstem lights all three.