A neurological look at race is multifaceted. The cross-race effect has been neurologically explained by there being differences in brain processing while viewing same-race and other-race faces. There is a debate over the cause of the cross-race effect.
Techniques
Neurotechnology enables studying the brain and racial interactions, though this study can be difficult because these interactions can be hard to replicate. Face recognition tests are the most commonly used method in studying racial interactions. These tests consist of observing own-race and other-race faces, and studying the brain's response to the faces. There are three major neurological techniques used to measure the brain's response to these simulated racial interactions. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) measures the brain activity through measuring the blood oxygen level in the brain. This test gives insight into which regions of the brain are active during a certain event. Event-related potentials (ERPs) measure the brain's activity through measuring electrical impulses by electrodes on the head. This test gives insight in rapid changes in the brain. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) measures the response of a region of the brain once activated through magnetism. This test gives insight into the causality of occurrences and gives specific insight in what the brain regions are doing. Brain-damaged patients have also been used to study racial interactions, by studying how racial interactions are affected when specific brain regions are damaged. These studies give insight into how different brain regions are involved in racial interactions once certain regions have been damaged. An implicit association test (IAC) is often used to measure the racial bias of people in studies by testing what objects, whether positive or negative, people associate with same-race or other-race faces.
Cross-race effect
Many studies researching racial interactions analyze the cross-race effect. This is a bias or tendency for people to be more familiar with a face of the same race compared to members of another race. This is characterized by people performing poorly on face recognition tests with other-race faces. This phenomenon is rooted in differences in face recognition and memory processing of same-race and other race faces.
Facial recognition
The first step the brain does to encode a memory is to process the face. The lateral fusiform gyrus is a facial recognition area of the brain. Within this brain region, the fusiform face area (FFA) analyzes the configuration and holistic appearance of the face. The FFA is more activated when viewing same-race faces compared to other-race faces. As time progresses from when the face is first viewed, the differences in FFA activation diminish. It’s believed that the FFA is more activated when viewing a same-race face because the brain individuates (using more analytic power) the same-race faces while simply categorizing other-race faces. The FFA isn’t the only region involved in facial recognition that effects the cross-race effect, but also the whole ventral temporal cortex (VT cortex). Scientists are able to distinguish which race face one is viewing at simply by viewing the VT cortex. Additionally, the fusiform cortex plays a vital role in categorizing race faces. This section is also more activated when viewing same-race faces, as it is studying the face in greater detail. However, these differences in activation of the fusiform complex diminish when a familiar other-race face is shown, like a celebrity.