The relation between the human face perception and the keyword spotting in speech recognition?

Question

In our brain there is an area, near the fusiform gyrus and the occipital area, to recognize the human face. And in speech recognition, there is a technique named keyword spotting. Then I am wondering 1) if there is an area in our brain for the similar function to recognize our names; 2) if a special face recognition function should be considered when we are building a robot?

Answer 1

Specialised neural circuitry to recognise faces is common in all our closest animal relatives. This means that it is likely an evolutionary adaptation that is many millions of years old. Babies can pay attention to faces basically from the moment they are born. There are certain types of brain damage that make it impossible to recognise faces.

Being addressed by an individual name (as opposed to broadcasting an individual signature) is likely a much more recent phenomenon. I have never heard of babies having any special propensity to pick up on names and I have never heard of brain damage that makes it selectively impossible to hear your name.

Also, face recognition can be hardwired because faces always look roughly the same. Names are always different. If you have to learn them anyway, it is more likely that it just happens with you general auditory brain stuff.

And it strikes me as likely that the speed that comes from special circuitry (recognising something early in the cortical hierarchy) is a lot more essential when it comes to faces (and snakes and spiders) then your own name.

So, while humans pay close attention to every sound that might be their name, I doubt there is specialised neural circuitry for that.

Answer 2

I don't think it is important to build a specialized circuitry for face recognition.

Our face recognition is hardwired by evolution. I think it is due to advantages like kin selection and kin altruism. You need to know who your brother is to help him, because he carries 1/4th your dna. So it is irrelevant in the case of building robots.

Knowing a name (yours or otherwise) is just correlation, it shouldn't go into a dedicated wetware.