The ability to recognize familiar faces is fundamental to social interaction. This process provides visual information and activates social and personal knowledge about a person who is familiar.
Researchers report that within the visual processing areas, information about a personally familiar or visually familiar face is shared across the brains of those with the same friends or acquaintances. Additionally, shared information about personally familiar faces extends to areas of the brain implicated in social processing, suggesting there is shared social information across the brain.