A part of the brain that is responsible for face recognition could develop new tissues throughout childhood. This is surprising because brain development during childhood is usually involved pruning back neural connections than growing new ones.
Researchers used magnetic resonance imaging to identify regions of the brain's visual cortex that showed more activity when processing faces. Then compared to regions that lit up when processing photos of places like cityscapes or hallways.
After that scientist compared the structures of those regions to in 22 kids brain with those young adults. The kids age ranged from five to 12, while the young adults range from 22 to 28.
Face-sensitive areas in a region called the fusiform gyrus changed between childhood and adulthood. However, the place-sensitive area - the collateral sulcus - didn't change dramatically.
The researchers found that adults had denser fusiform gyrus brain tissue than kids and that tissue contained a different composition of cells and proteins.
An MRI scan alone cannot identify what exactly those increased tissues responsible for the face recognition. But based on studies before suggesting that the effect may come in part with the increase in dendrites.
Dendrites are the fingerlike projections of nerve cells that receive messages from other nerve cells. Dendrites might branch out more, making more connections.
On the other hand it could also be oligodendrocytes, brain cells that produce nerve cells' insulating myelin coating.
Jesse Gomez, who led the study said, the actual nerve cell count isn't increasing though. He is a neuroscientist at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
The visual cortex is composed of regions specific to processing many different types of visual stimuli,faces and places but also movement and colors.
According to the Science News, humans take longer to develop face recognition skills. Throughout development, our social circle grows that may explain why it keeps on developing.
According to the Science Daily, the researchers studied regions of the brain that does the face recognition, and places, respectively, because knowing who you are looking at and where you are is important for everyday function.
