Are you one of those people who never forgets a face? Well, it seems that the credit for your ability (or lack of ability) may go to your genes. In the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences new research results show that there’s a clear genetic basis for higher level perception and cognitive abilities such as facial recognition. By comparing groups of twins, scientists found that identical twins (who share 100% of their genetic material) were more than twice as likely to share the same competence level in recognizing faces, compared to non-identical twins (who share 50% of their genetic material). “We are excited about this finding because the brain mechanisms carrying out face recognition are fairly well understood, meaning that the high heritability of face recognition could provide a good opportunity to connect genes to brain mechanism and then to behavior,” said lead author, Dr. Brad Duchaine. [via PNAS]
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Dr. Steven Chang, the author of DailyDose, is a staff physician with Kosmix RightHealth. Dr. Chang practices Family Medicine at the University of California Davis Medical Center, where his medical interests include both pediatric and geriatric care, public health, gay and lesbian health, and sleep medicine. Dr. Chang trained at the Stanford University affiliated O'Connor Hospital, and was a research fellow at the National Institute of Health. He holds an M.D. from McGill University and a BA in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University.