Researchers are honored for their groundbreaking insights into the neural basis of face and object recognition
Doris Tsao and Winrich Freiwald.
© Tsao, Freiwald
To the Point
- In 2026, Doris Tsao of the University of California, Berkeley, and Winrich Freiwald of the Rockefeller University in New York will be awarded the Gertrud Reemtsma Foundation's Prize for Translational Neuroscience.
- The laureates are being honored for their contributions to deciphering complex neural processes in visual perception and social cognition-areas of central importance for the development of new therapies for neurological and psychiatric disorders.
- The award ceremony will take place on June 25, 2026, at the Bucerius Kunst Forum in Hamburg.
In their research, Doris Tsao and Winrich Freiwald have investigated how the human brain recognizes faces. They have identified a network of six hierarchically interconnected brain regions involved in face recognition, known as the "face-patch system." Doris Tsao discovered the neural code that specialized neurons in the temporal cortex use to represent the diversity of faces. In other words, she discovered the dictionary mapping individual faces to neural activity patterns. Using this dictionary, she and her colleagues were able to reconstruct which face was being viewed based on the activity of the networks. These networks are part of a larger system for identifying objects. These findings contribute to our fundamental knowledge of how the brain can recognize faces and objects so accurately and efficiently. Furthermore, they open new avenues for the treatment of disorders such as face blindness (prosopagnosia) and contribute to the development of neuroprosthetics.
Winrich Freiwald, working together with Doris, discovered that the brain transforms visual inputs into progressively abstract, meaningful representations of a face. Posterior areas of the cortex process details that depend on the observer's viewpoint. In intermediate regions, facial features are already partially independent of perspective, until they become completely independent of the viewpoint in the anterior areas. His work also demonstrates that faces are represented by the activity of groups of neurons. Furthermore, he has uncovered how face recognition is linked to memory, emotions, and social behavior. For example, he has identified neurons at the front end of the temporal lobe that respond selectively to familiar faces. This demonstrates how visual perception is linked to memory content. These findings are also helpful for understanding neurological disorders such as autism spectrum disorders, in which the connection between perception and social behavior is impaired.
The Gertrud Reemtsma Foundation's Prize for Translational Neuroscience is awarded annually to two researchers whose fundamental neuroscientific discoveries have provided significant impetus for clinical practice. The prize is endowed with 60,000 euros.
About the Laureates
After completing her studies at the California Institute of Technology and earning her Ph.D. at Harvard University, Doris Tsao led a research group at the University of Bremen from 2004 to 2008. She then returned to the California Institute of Technology. Since 2021, Doris Tsao has been a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. She is also the chief scientist at Astera Neuro-a research initiative of the Astera Institute aimed at unraveling fundamental mysteries of the brain.
Winrich Freiwald studied at Georg August University of Göttingen and Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen and earned his Ph.D. at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt. Following research stays at MIT and Harvard University, he led a research group at the University of Bremen from 2004 to 2008. Since 2009, he has been working at Rockefeller University in New York.
