The brain area that recognises a familiar face, identifies a known voice too!

So far, scientists were of the opinion that face and voice recognition in humans occur in two separate parts of the brain. However, a recent study posits that it’s quite the opposite. Turns out, human brain uses the same centre to identify a familiar voice as well as a known face. This study was part of a latest neuroscience experiment wherein participants of different age groups were asked to identify US Presidents, using both their voices and images. 

The study was published in the Journal of Neurophysiology and was conducted by neuroscientists based at the University of Pittsburgh, USA.  

The study revealed that the region of the brain that is responsible for processing visual cues (called ‘fusiform gyri’) also lights up (meaning, it becomes active) when one hears a known voice. However, the response in case of voice recognition is lower and slightly delayed in comparison to face recognition.  

Sources also cite that there’s a possibility that the visual and auditory information that we associate with a person feed into a common brain centre, thus ensuring a well-rounded and powerful recognition. This happens early on when we first meet and identify people. But later, when the two sensations isolate, they do not function as appropriately; so, it’s as if they work best when together.  

Experts say that so far it was known from behavioural research that an individual is equipped to recognise a familiar voice faster and more accurately than the same person’s face and now finally they have the explanation for it. It’s because, the visual cortex lights up later than the auditory cortex, considering the two systems are interlinked. So, what was previously thought to be structurally and spatially distinct is now understood as more intimately related.  

Until recently, researchers never really got the opportunity to test voice and face recognition systems simultaneously. However, a chance came up during an epilepsy study where patients had to undergo temporary implantations with electrodes measuring their brain activities to help determine their seizure sources. As part of the same process, five adults also consented to join this face-voice recognition study wherein they were first made to hear the voices of three American Presidents, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Later, they were also showed photographs of them and finally short video clippings with both voice stimuli and visual information was revealed.  

When the last one was played, they were able to recognise the face faster than the voice. However, when the voices and faces appeared separately, voice was quicker to identify than the face.  

In addition to learning about the basic functioning of the brain, the study also helped understand the mechanisms behind disorders that leads to compromised voice and face recognitions, such as dementia.