summary: Researchers have used Game of Thrones to study how the brain recognises faces, providing insight into prosopagnosia, a condition that affects one in 50 people and causes problems with facial recognition.
MRI scans showed that fans of the show showed increased activity in areas of the brain associated with character knowledge, while people who were unfamiliar with the show and people with prosopagnosia showed decreased activity, suggesting that face recognition relies on linking familiarity between faces and individuals.
This study highlights the importance of this connection for social interaction and mental health.
Key Facts:
- Game of Thrones was used to study brain activity during recognition of familiar faces.
- Fans of the show were found to have increased activity in brain areas associated with knowledge of the characters.
- People with prosopagnosia have reduced neural connections that affect face recognition.
sauce: York University
Psychologists have used the hit TV series “Game of Thrones” to try to understand how the brain enables us to recognise faces.
Their findings offer new insight into prosopagnosia, or face agnosia, a condition that impairs the ability to recognise faces and affects around 1 in 50 people.
Researchers scanned the brains of more than 70 study participants as they watched footage from the hit TV series: half of the participants were familiar with the show’s famously complex protagonists, while the other half had never seen the series.
When the lead character appeared on screen, MRI scans showed that neurotypical participants who were familiar with the character showed increased brain activity in areas of the brain associated with non-visual knowledge, such as who the character is and what they know about the character.
Interestingly, in those who were familiar with Game of Thrones, connections between the visual brain and these non-visual regions were also increased. But in a group of neurologically normal participants who had never watched the series, these waves of activity were significantly reduced.
To determine whether these regions are important for face recognition, the researchers repeated the study with patients with prosopagnosia. As with the previous group, half had watched Game of Thrones, and the other half had never seen the series. Consistent with the difficulties in face recognition, the familiarity effect was not found in the same brain regions as seen in neurologically normal participants. Connections between visual and nonvisual areas were also reduced in prosopagnosia.
Professor Tim Andrews, from the School of Psychology and lead author of the study, said: “We were really excited to see the results of the study because it suggests that our ability to recognise a face depends on what we know about that person, not just on their appearance.”
“It has been thought that to recognise a face you need to know its visual properties such as features, composition and texture, but our research shows that you also need to combine knowledge of the face with that person’s personality traits, body language, your personal experiences with that person and your feelings about them.
“Facial recognition is essential to our daily lives and social interactions. When people struggle with it, it has a major impact on their lives and relationships, and often leads to mental health issues and social anxiety.”
“Our study advances our understanding of how prosopagnosia is associated with reduced neural connectivity, showing that this leads to difficulties associating faces with personal knowledge, which is essential for recognition.”
The researchers decided to show participants footage from Game of Thrones because of its international popularity and the large number of well-developed main characters.
Kira Noad, lead author of the study and a doctoral student in the psychology department, said: “We chose to expose participants to footage from Game of Thrones because the series has captivated people around the world with its strong characters and deep, nuanced personalities.
“Most previous studies of the brain mechanisms behind face recognition have been carried out in the laboratory using 2D static images of faces. We aimed to create a more realistic study format by presenting complex scenes with multiple people in videos.
“Further research is needed to investigate in more detail how activity in different brain regions enables face recognition, and what factors interfere with this process.”
About this prosopagnosia research news
author: Samantha Martin
sauce: York University
contact: Samantha Martin – University of York
image: Image courtesy of Neuroscience News
Original Research: The access is closed.
“Familiarity enhances functional connectivity between visual and nonvisual brain regions during naturalistic viewing.” Tim Andrews et al. Cerebral cortex
Abstract
Familiarity enhances functional connectivity between visual and nonvisual brain regions during naturalistic viewing.
We investigated the neural correlates of familiarity with people and places using a naturalistic viewing paradigm: we measured neural responses using functional magnetic resonance imaging while participants watched Game of Thrones films.
We compared inter-subject correlations and functional connectivity between participants who were familiar with the TV series and those who were unfamiliar with it. Among familiar participants, we found higher inter-subject correlations in regions typically associated with processing semantic, episodic and emotional information, beyond visual brain regions.
However, familiarity also enhanced functional connectivity between visual brain face and landscape regions and non-visual regions of the familiarity network.To determine whether these regions play a critical role in face recognition, we measured responses in participants with developmental prosopagnosia (DP).
Consistent with the deficits in face recognition, the effect of familiarity was significantly weakened across the familiarity network in DP. The effect of familiarity on functional connectivity between face regions and the familiarity network was also weakened in DP.
These results indicate that neural responses to familiarity involve an extended network of brain regions and that functional connectivity between visual and nonvisual brain regions plays a critical role in person and place recognition in natural vision.
