The Importance of Orientation and Fusiform Gyrus in Facial Recognition

Proper orientation is crucial to activate the fusiform gyrus for recognizing facial features. The Thatcher diagram experiment showed that distorting facial features make it hard to recognize faces upside down but easy when right side up. The fusiform gyrus plays a critical role in identifying facial details, especially when the brain acknowledges it's processing a face. Misidentification syndromes like Capgras syndrome involve the inability to recognize familiar people or places, often mistaking them for strangers.