Cortical area · one in each half of the brain
Fusiform gyrus
Also called Lateral occipitotemporal gyrus
Your face and word detector, on the underside of the brain.
A long, spindle-shaped ridge on the underside of the temporal and occipital lobes. It contains the fusiform face area, which responds strongly to faces. Usually on the left, it also contains the visual word form area, which becomes tuned to written words as you learn to read. It helps recognize bodies and colors too.
Where it is
On the underside of the brain, along the bottom of the temporal and occipital lobes. It lies between the inferior temporal gyrus on the outside and the parahippocampal gyrus on the inside.
What it does
Recognizing faces
The fusiform face area helps you know who someone is from their face, usually in a split second.
Reading words
The visual word form area recognizes letters and whole words, largely regardless of font or size.
Expert eyes
It helps experts tell apart things that look alike, such as bird species or car models.
Seeing color
Its back part, together with the lingual gyrus, helps you perceive color.
Think of it as a security guard with a perfect memory for faces and a speed-reader's eye for words.
Works with
- Lateral occipital cortexIt receives object shapes from here and refines them into faces and words.
- Superior temporal sulcusThe fusiform gyrus works out who a face belongs to, while the STS reads its expression and gaze.
- AmygdalaThe amygdala adds emotional meaning to faces, such as fear, and boosts this area's response to fearful faces.
- Angular gyrus regionWritten words recognized here are passed on to link with their sounds and meanings.
- Lingual gyrusIts neighbor helps with color and early visual processing.
When it goes wrong
Face blindness (prosopagnosia)
People cannot recognize faces, sometimes even their own family, and rely on voice, hair or walk. It can follow a stroke, or be present from birth in up to about 2 or 3 out of 100 people.
Pure alexia
Damage to the left word area can take away reading while writing still works. People may write a note and then be unable to read it back.
Color blindness from the brain
Damage to the underside of the occipital lobe, including the back of this gyrus, can make the world look gray even though the eyes are fine.
For learning only, not medical advice. If you have a health concern, talk to a doctor.
Surprising facts
- When doctors gently stimulated this area in a patient with electrodes, the patient said the faces of people in the room "metamorphosed", twisting out of shape, while other objects looked normal.
- The word area takes shape as you learn to read. In adults who never learned to read, the same spot responds less to letters and more to faces.
- The famous neurologist and writer Oliver Sacks had lifelong face blindness himself.
Where the name comes from
From the Latin "fusus", meaning "spindle". Like an old spindle used to spin thread, it is wider in the middle and tapers at both ends.
Learn it in a lesson
- SeeingFrom the eye to the back of the brain. A short guided lesson in 3D.
Quick quiz
3 questions. Your answers are saved and come back in your daily review.
Which of these is a job of the fusiform gyrus?
Show the answer
Recognizing faces. The fusiform face area helps you know who someone is from their face, usually in a split second.
Recognizing faces. The fusiform face area helps you know who someone is from their face, usually in a split second.
The fusiform gyrus is part of which larger structure?
Show the answer
Temporal lobe. It belongs to the temporal lobe.
Temporal lobe. It belongs to the temporal lobe.
Which part fits this description? "Like a security guard with a perfect memory for faces and a speed-reader's eye for words."
Show the answer
Fusiform gyrus. It is the fusiform gyrus. Your face and word detector, on the underside of the brain.
Fusiform gyrus. It is the fusiform gyrus. Your face and word detector, on the underside of the brain.
These parts now come back in your daily review, just before you would forget them.
Practice it and its neighbors in 3DSources
- Fusiform gyrus, Radiopaedia
- Prosopagnosia, StatPearls, NCBI Bookshelf
- Alexia, StatPearls, NCBI Bookshelf
Spotted a mistake? Tell us.
Explore the fusiform gyrus in 3D
Turn it around, zoom inside and see how it connects to the rest of the brain, then test yourself with quick quizzes.
Open it in 3D