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Brain's face recognition area grows much bigger as we get older
If you feel overwhelmed by an ever-growing social circle, fear not. Your brain can keep up with all those new faces, thanks to one region that continues to grow even in adulthood. The discovery is surprising, because most changes to the brain as it matures involve the altering of existing connections between neurons. But brain scans have revealed that one area of the cortex, the fusiform gyrus, gets much larger as we age. The fusiform gyrus is thought to play a role in recognising faces, something that adults are better at doing than children.