Human face recognition ability is specific and highly heritable

Abstract

Compared with notable successes in the genetics of basic sensory transduction, progress on the genetics of higher level perception and cognition has been limited. We propose that investigating specific cognitive abilities with well-defined neural substrates, such as face recognition, may yield additional insights. In a twin study of face recognition, we found that the correlation of scores between monozygotic twins (0.70) was more than double the dizygotic twin correlation (0.29), evidence for a high genetic contribution to face recognition ability. Low correlations between face recognition scores and visual and verbal recognition scores indicate that both face recognition ability itself and its genetic basis are largely attributable to face-specific mechanisms. The present results therefore identify an unusual phenomenon: a highly specific cognitive ability that is highly heritable. Our results establish a clear genetic basis for face recognition, opening this intensively studied and socially advantageous cognitive trait to genetic investigation.

Fig. 1.

Examples of stimuli from the tests used. Each test consisted of a learning phase during which target stimuli were memorized and a testing phase during which participants identified the memorized stimuli among different stimuli. (A) CFMT was our test of primary interest (20). (B) AAM was our visual memory control test. (C) VPAM was our nonvisual memory control test (22).

Fig. 2.

CFMT twin correlations. The second-born twin’s CFMT score (y axis) plotted against the first-born twin’s score (x axis) for MZ (n = 164) twins (A) and DZ (n = 125) twins (B). The score is the total % correct of 72 items. Chance performance is 24 of 72 items correct (33.3%). MZ intraclass correlation is rMZ(162) = 0.70, and DZ intraclass correlation is rDZ(123) = 0.29. (C) Plot of DZ vs. MZ twin intraclass correlations. Lines represent the extreme cases in which all family resemblance is caused by shared environmental (dotted line, rDZ = rMZ) or additive genetic (solid line, rDZ = 0.5*rMZ) effects, according to the classic twin ACE model (1). Error bars represent 68% (±SE) CIs.