生物谷报道：有些人常常抱怨自己记性差，认不清路，记不住陌生人的面孔。美国科学家的一项最新研究发现，人们对于长相和地点的识别能力会受到遗传基因的影响。这项研究成果刊登在2007年12月19日的美国《神经科学杂志》（Journal of Neuroscience）上。
美国密歇根大学撒德·波尔克博士及其同事对500多对同卵双胞胎和异卵双胞胎进行了研究。
研究人员让这些双胞胎们观看电脑屏幕上闪现的人物头像、地点、房屋、物体以及一些生造出来的单词，这些单词可以读却毫无意义。与此同时，研究人员对受试者进行大脑功能核磁共振扫描。扫描结果表明，在回忆面部和地点的时候，同卵双胞胎大脑活动模式的相似程度比异卵双胞胎更高，但是在物体和单词识别方面没有这样的区别。
研究人员指出，试验结果表明，人们对长相和地点的记忆能力可能受到遗传基因的影响；同时，与各种物体和生造词汇相比，人们更善于记忆长相和地点。
撒德·波尔克表示，人们对于长相和地点的识别能力，符合人类生存发展的需要，是在人类进化过程中逐渐选择进入遗传基因的。（生命时报）
生物谷推荐原始出处：
The Journal of Neuroscience, December 19, 2007, 27(51):13921-13925; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4001-07.2007
Brief Communications
Nature versus Nurture in Ventral Visual Cortex: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study of Twins
Thad A. Polk,1 Joonkoo Park,1 Mason R. Smith,1 and Denise C. Park2
1Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, and 2The Beckman Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801
Correspondence should be addressed to Thad A. Polk, Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, 530 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109. Email: tpolk@umich.edu
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we estimated neural activity in twins to study genetic influences on the cortical response to categories of visual stimuli (faces, places, and pseudowords) that are known to elicit distinct patterns of activity in ventral visual cortex. The neural activity patterns in monozygotic twins were significantly more similar than in dizygotic twins for the face and place stimuli, but there was no effect of zygosity for pseudowords (or chairs, a control category). These results demonstrate that genetics play a significant role in determining the cortical response to faces and places, but play a significantly smaller role (if any) in the response to orthographic stimuli.
Key words: ventral visual cortex; functional MRI; face perception; place perception; word perception; twins
Received Aug. 31, 2007; revised Oct. 31, 2007; accepted Nov. 2, 2007.
Correspondence should be addressed to Thad A. Polk, Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, 530 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109. Email: tpolk@umich.edu
