[The brain and the visual recognition of human faces (author's transl)].

The first part presents some studies in normal subjects. We observe that faces recognition is a very primitive behavior in human child, that the symmetry and some parts of a face may play a specific role, and that the right cerebral cortex is dominant for this function. Problems of specificity are also examined. Studies in pathological subjects are then presented. We examine some publications concerning child's psychiatry and neurology. Prosopagnosia, his associated symptoms, and the anatomical questions are then considered. Finally we examine researches concerning the relationships between brain lesions and the recognition of human faces, with a special attention to the mnesic processes and to the questions of specificity.