Faces have long been considered special as social signals, and, from prehistoric amulets to many modern painters, faces are central to art. Now, we have striking new neurologic evidence that faces are special in the brain, as well.
Face recognition is a critical skill that develops early and supports our social abilities. Emotion recognition is perhaps second to face recognition in enabling social reasoning. People's facial expressions give us important clues regarding how they are feeling and reacting to ongoing events.
