Putting a name to a face isn't always easy and many of us struggle recognising people.
Scientists have discovered that a natural 'love drug' in the brain is the reason some people are better at recognising faces than others.
For the first time the feel-good chemical oxytocin, released by the brain during child-birth and breast-feeding, has been linked to remembering social interaction. Oxytocin is also commonly known as the 'cuddle hormone' and is a chemical messenger released during social interactions. It helps mothers to bond with their babies, promotes romantic feelings, and makes people generally more sociable.
According to the findings of a new study from New York University, which was published in the Journal of Neuroscience, high levels of oxtytocin make it easier to recognise a familiar face
The researchers found that a nasal spray containing oxytocin improved participants' memory of pictures and faces which they'd been shown the day before.
Dr Peter Klaver at the University of Zurich, who is the study's senior author, said: 'Recognising a familiar face is a crucial feature of successful social interaction in humans. In this study, we investigated for the first time the systematic effect of oxytocin on social memory in humans.'
Dr Klaver and his colleagues gave participants the oxytocin spray or a placebo and then showed them images of faces and also inanimate objects, such as houses. When they returned the next day, they were given a surprise memory test where a mixture of new images and images from the day before, were shown to them and they were asked to identify those that they specifically 'remembered' being shown the previous day.
The volunteers who used the oxytocin spray more accurately recognised the faces they had seen before than did those in the control group.
Dr Larry Young at Emory University, who was not involved in the study, said: 'This has important implications for disorders such as autism, where social information processing is clearly impaired.'
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