Located on the ventral surface of the temporal lobe, the FFA specializes in facial recognition and expertise-based visual discrimination. Identified in the 1990s via fMRI by Nancy Kanwisher and colleagues, this region activates selectively when viewing faces — distinguishing individuals and emotional expressions. It’s part of the ventral visual stream, linking occipital processing (V1–V4) to higher-order identity recognition. In conditions like prosopagnosia, lesions in this area cause face blindness — the inability to recognize even familiar people. Its specificity exemplifies how specialized modules within the brain contribute to complex social cognition.