Facial recognition not as complex as previously thought

When we look at a selection of faces, our brains can single out the familiar ones with no effort at all. This smooth process comes so naturally that most people never give it a second thought. But someone who does give this phenomenon a second thought is Doris Tsao, a professor of biology and biological engineering at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Over recent years, Prof. Tsao has conducted a range of experiments that have attempted to get to the bottom of facial perception. In earlier studies, Prof. Tsao and her colleagues used functional MRI scans to search for relevant brain areas in humans and other primates.