London, Feb 23 (IANS) Your genes might have something to do with face recognition, says a new study.

Scientists found that identical twins were twice as similar to each other in terms of their ability to recognise faces, compared to non-identical twins.

They also found that the genetic effects that allow people to recognise faces are linked to a highly specific mechanism in the brain, unrelated to the organ's ability to recognise words or abstract art.

'Face recognition is a skill that we depend on daily and considerable variability exists in the ability to recognise faces,' said Brad Duchaine from the University College London (UCL).

'Our results show that genetic differences are responsible for the great majority of the difference in face recognition ability between people,' added Duchaine, study co-author.

The study consisted of 164 identical twins, who share all their genes, and 125 non-identical same-sex twins, who share 50 percent of their genes.

All the participants took the Cambridge Face Memory Test, which measures the ability to learn six faces and then recognise them in novel poses and lighting, said a UCL release.

These findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.