Scientific Understanding of Consciousness
Consciousness as an Emergent Property of Thalamocortical Activity

Facial Recognition and Communication

 

Humans have an exquisite ability to recognize faces.

Along with other primates such as chimps, humans use facial expression for communication.

Human infants in the early weeks of life gaze at the caregiver’s face and communicate with the caregiver via facial expressions.  An infant’s responsive smile at about six weeks is a caregivers delight.  This facial recognition and communication by infants is innate; it requires no training and learning.

Face Recognition

Face recognition in humans is a form of patternicity that begins shortly after birth. (Shermer; Believing Brain, 69)

When an infant observes the cooing happy face of its mother or father, the face acts as a sign stimulus that initiates the innate releasing mechanism in the brain to trigger that fixed action pattern of smiling back, thereby setting up a symphony of parent-child staring and cooling and smiling -- and bonding attachment. (Shermer; Believing Brain, 69)

Facial recognition neural synaptic efficacies were built into our brains by evolution because of the importance of the face in establishing and maintaining relationships, reading emotions, and determining trust in social interactions. (Shermer; Believing Brain, 69)

We scan others' faces for emotional leakage: sadness, disgust, joy, surprise, anger, and happiness. (Shermer; Believing Brain, 69)

 

 

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