Temporal Lobe · Structure
Fusiform Gyrus
The face specialist.
On the underside of the temporal lobe, the fusiform gyrus contains a patch so tuned to faces that scientists call it the fusiform face area. It also handles reading whole words at a glance.
What it does
- Recognizing individual faces
- Reading familiar words as shapes
- Identifying complex visual categories
In the real world
Face blindness
Prosopagnosia, an inability to recognize faces, traces to this region — and training programs now teach people to identify others by hairline, gait, and voice instead.