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How the brain remembers faces

29.12.2017

A team of scientists led by Doris Tsao, a biologist at the California Institute of Technology, using a combination of brain mapping and recording of individual neuron signals, appears to have cracked the neural code for facial recognition in primates. Scientists have found that the frequency of pulsation of each cell of certain areas of the face (face patches, and this is the term) corresponds to its individual features. Cells can "tune" to respond to bits of information like a system of scales, and then combine these bits in various ways to reproduce each feature of the seen "face" of the animal.

A study of the brain's ability to process images showed that several regions of the temporal lobe of the brain, the size of a blueberry, are responsible for face recognition.

To understand how cells perform this recognition function, Cao and Steven Le Chang took 2000 pictures of faces that differed in 50 features, including facial roundness, distance between the eyes, and skin tone and texture. They showed these pictures to two monkeys, recording the activity of individual neurons in three different facial patches of both animals.

It turned out that neurons respond only to one particular feature. Hippocampal neurons encode non-individual faces. Neurons divide facial images into small sections and encode certain features, such as the width of the hairline. Moreover, individual neurons also process additional information. Data from different parts of the face are combined to get a complete picture.

By understanding how this division of labor works, Chang and Cao were able to predict how neurons would react to a completely new face. They developed a mathematical model in which facial features were encoded by various neurons. They then showed the monkey an image of a face that it had not seen before. Using the created algorithm, scientists were able, based on the data obtained on the reactions of neurons, to digitally form an image of the face seen by the monkey. The reproduction turned out to be almost indistinguishable from the image that the monkey saw.

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At the moment, little is known about the "twin" of the Earth: the radius of the planets is 10% larger than the Earth's, but neither its composition nor mass is known yet. The native star - Kepler-186 is much colder and smaller than the Sun - by about 60%. The composition of the planetary system, in addition to 186f, includes four more celestial bodies. On their surface, water in a liquid state cannot be, since they rotate in too small orbits. The system is 500 light years away from us and is located in the constellation Cygnus. The authors of the study, based on the available information, suggest that the planet Kepler-186f has a rocky surface. Details about the life of the first earthly "twin" have yet to be clarified.

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