Daily News

Posted on Sept.11: McMaster vision scientists discover the right brain’s connected to the left eye’s view of the world

Three vision scientists from McMaster University's Visual Development Lab have discovered that the right hemisphere of a baby's brain must receive visual input during the first few weeks of life to allow the brain to develop normal face processing skills. Their findings are detailed in the article, "Expert face processing requires visual input to the right hemisphere during infancy", published this week in the online edition of the journal Nature Neuroscience. Adults can recognize hundreds of faces at a glance. One reason we are so good is that we recognize small differences between people in how their features are spaced (e.g., how far apart their eyes are). This allows us to recognize someone's face from a novel point of view (e.g., to recognize someone sitting across the aisle at a movie theater with whom we previously had only face-to-face interactions). This skill continues to develop through adolescence and seems to depend on the right hemisphere. "The two halves of the brain are not created equal as only the right hemisphere appears able to develop expertise in processing faces," said psychology professor Daphne Maurer. "We know from this study that early visual input to the right hemisphere is required for this skill to develop correctly."