Georgetown University Medical Center and its colleagues discovered that people who are blind can recognize faces through auditory patterns processed by the fusiform face area, a distinct region in the brain that handles face processing. To conduct their research, they used a sensory substitution device to convert images into sound, demonstrating that facial recognition is not solely dependent on visual experience. The study, published in PLOS ONE on November 22, 2023, challenged the conventional understanding of how facial recognition develops and functions in the brain.
The research revealed that the fusiform face area in the brain can process the concept of a face through auditory patterns, instead of exclusively relying on visual cues. Functional MRI scans showed that this area is active in both blind and sighted individuals during face recognition tasks. The study also found that the left fusiform face area in the brain was activated by sound-encoded faces in people who are blind. This indicates that the development of the fusiform face area may not rely on experience with visual faces, but rather on exposure to the geometry of facial configurations.
The researchers used a specialized device to translate visual information into sound, allowing blind participants to recognize basic facial configurations. With this device, people who are blind can recognize basic ‘cartoon’ faces when transcribed into sound patterns. The researchers discovered that the left and right sides of the fusiform face area process faces in different ways, which is crucial information for fine-tuning their sensory substitution device.
While the current device allows people who are blind to recognize basic facial configurations through sound, further advancement in the resolution of the device would be needed to enable the recognition of real faces. The researchers hope that their findings will contribute to the development of improved processes for recognizing faces through auditory patterns. This research was supported by a grant from the National Eye Institute and has no financial interests related to the study, according to the authors.
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