Superior face-recognition from vestibular stimulation.

The vestibular organs, providing the sense of balance and acceleration, have dense neuroanatomical connections. Stimulation of these organs elicits widespread changes in cortical blood flow, including regions active during face perception and recognition. Previous studies report improved face recognition in acquired prosopagnosia following vestibular stimulation and an enlarged N170 in healthy adults. The present study explores the effect of pioneering caloric vestibular stimulation (CVS) in the behavioural performance of healthy adults during face recognition tasks. Sixty participants were asked to identify the nationality of celebrities in four testing sessions following an ABAB design. A significant main effect of stimulation demonstrated improved accuracy during those sessions with CVS. The findings have immediate real-world value in settings that require superior face recognition skills such as passport control and identity parades. The study also provides further evidence to the efficacy of vestibular stimulation in modulating cognitive processes.