The question of how the brain recognizes the faces of familiar individuals has been important throughout the history of neuroscience. Cells linking visual processing to person memory have been proposed but not found. Here, we report the discovery of such cells through recordings from an area in the macaque temporal pole identified with functional magnetic resonance imaging. These cells responded to faces that were personally familiar. They responded nonlinearly to stepwise changes in face visibility and detail and holistically to face parts, reflecting key signatures of familiar face recognition. They discriminated between familiar identities, as fast as a general face identity area. The discovery of these cells establishes a new pathway for the fast recognition of familiar individuals.

在整个神经科学史上，大脑如何识别熟悉个体的面孔这一问题一直很重要。已经提出了将视觉处理与人的记忆联系起来的细胞，但尚未发现。在这里，我们通过功能磁共振成像识别的猕猴颞极区域的记录报告了这种细胞的发现。这些细胞会对个人熟悉的面孔做出反应。他们对面部可见性和细节的逐步变化做出非线性反应，对面部部分做出整体反应，反映熟悉的面部识别的关键特征。他们区分熟悉的身份，速度与一般的面部识别区域一样快。这些细胞的发现为快速识别熟悉的个体开辟了一条新途径。