Surely more than once when approaching someone you have easily recognized their face but have been unable to remember their name . Neuroscientists at the University of Bristol (UK) have identified the brain circuit behind these memory mechanisms.
In a series of experiments with mice, Clea Warbuton and Gareth Barker have shown that when we remember a face or an object, three areas of the brain are involved that work "as a team": the perirrinal cortex , which tells us whether an object is familiar or never familiar we had seen before; the hippocampus , which recognizes places and spaces; and the medial prefrontal cortex , responsible for higher brain functions. If the communication between the three regions of this brain circuit is broken, we are not able to remember neither the "object in its place" (for example, where we left the keys) nor? The temporal order "(where we saw them for the last time), according to explain the study authors in the Journal of Neuroscience .
According to the researchers, if we recognize someone on the street but do not remember their name , it is very likely that we have seen them elsewhere, for example at work. Remembering where we first saw that person may make it easier for us to remember their name.
