Moon's enigmatic visage: The psychological reason we perceive human faces in its craters
In a groundbreaking study, researchers from the University of Sydney and the National Institute of Mental Health in the United States have uncovered the brain's intricate process in distinguishing real human faces from illusory ones. The study's findings, published today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, suggest that our brain identifies and analyses both real and illusory faces using the same cognitive processes.
Led by Professor David Alais from the School of Psychology at the University of Sydney, the study reveals that when we encounter a pareidolia face - an illusion of a face in a non-human object - specific brain regions, particularly a network involving the fusiform gyrus (Fusiform Face Area) in the ventral pathway between the occipital and temporal lobes, play a key role in correctly distinguishing real faces from false ones.
Professor Alais explains, "The brain identifies and analyses real human faces using the same cognitive processes that identify illusory faces. This implies that seeing faces in non-human objects is more than a child's fantasy."
The study, funded by an Australian Research Council grant (DP190101537), found that the facial recognition response happens lightning fast in the brain: within a few hundred milliseconds. Moreover, the expression analysis of inanimate objects is due to humans being deeply social beings, and simply detecting a face isn't enough, we need to read the identity of the face and discern its expression.
The researchers found that the same underlying facial expression process is involved regardless of the image type (real or pareidolia). This error, known as "face pareidolia" and a common occurrence, is, according to Professor Alais, outweighed by the benefit of never missing a face. The brain has evolved specialized neural mechanisms to rapidly detect faces, and it exploits the common facial structure as a shortcut for rapid detection.
The study was conducted in collaboration with scientists at the Laboratory of Brain and Cognition at the National Institute of Mental Health in the United States. The findings of the study are published today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The paper, false face images, and a photo of Professor Alais can be downloaded at the provided link.
For media enquiries, contact Marcus Strom at [email protected] or +61 423 982 485. Professor David Alais' email address is [email protected]. The DOI for the study's paper is 10.1098/rspb.2021.0966. Not only do we imagine faces, we also analyse them and give them emotional attributes.
The researchers suggest that this ability to analyse inanimate objects as faces is a testament to our deep-rooted social nature. It underscores the importance of facial recognition in human interaction and the brain's remarkable ability to quickly and accurately identify faces.
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