Brain Area That Recognizes Faces Gets Busier And Better In Young Adults

A comparison of kid brains and grownup brains may explain why our ability to recognize faces keeps getting better until about age 30.

Brain scans of 25 adults and 22 children showed that an area devoted to facial recognition keeps growing long after adolescence, researchers report in the journal Science.

The area didn't acquire more neurons, says Jesse Gomez, a graduate student in neurosciences at Stanford University and the study's lead author. Instead the brain region became more densely populated with the structures that connect and support neurons.