A Face to Remember

Once dominated by correlational studies, face-perception research is moving into the realm of experimentation—and gaining tremendous insight.

Kerry Grens

| 16 min read

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Ron Blackwell reclined in a hospital bed at Stanford University, bandages from his recent brain surgery wrapped snugly around his head. Doctors had just removed a piece of his cranium, implanted electrodes on the surface of his brain, and closed him back up. He waited for a seizure.

Blackwell, 49, had his first seizure when he was 11 and had experienced similar incidents periodically thereafter. But after he turned 40, the seizures became more frequent. He wanted to feel secure when caring for his two young children instead of worrying that he might have a seizure while bringing them to the park. So in 2012 he gave doctors the OK to implant the electrodes, which were designed to pinpoint the epicenter of his seizures as ...

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Meet the Author

Kerry Grens
Kerry served as The Scientist’s news director until 2021. Before joining The Scientist in 2013, she was a stringer for Reuters Health, the senior health and science reporter at WHYY in Philadelphia, and the health and science reporter at New Hampshire Public Radio. Kerry got her start in journalism as a AAAS Mass Media fellow at KUNC in Colorado. She has a master’s in biological sciences from Stanford University and a biology degree from Loyola University Chicago.
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