See a face
đˇď¸ TĂ o lao
A: Why do I see faces in all kinds of mundane objects?
B: This is because humans are social animals and reading faces is an important part of our ability to understand each other. Even a glimpse of someoneâs face can help you determine if youâve met them before, what mood theyâre in, and if theyâre paying attention to you. You even use facial features to make snap judgements about a personâs potential trustworthiness or aggression
A: How can I do that?
B: To capture all this vital information, humans have evolved to be very sensitive to face-like structures. Whenever you see something, your brain immediately starts working to identify the new visual stimuli based on your expectations and prior knowledge. Since faces are so important, humans have evolved several regions of the brain that enable us to identify them faster than other visual stimuli
A: How is it fast?
B: Whereas recognizing most objects takes your brain around a quarter of a second, you can detect a face in just a tenth of a second.
A: Why is it so fast?
B: Because regions may actually be too sensitive. But this may lead them to find faces where they donât exist
A: Thatâs concerning
B: Yes. Your brain can be so wrong so often, but these illusory faces might actually be a byproduct of something evolutionarily advantageous
A: How can it be?
B: Since processing all the visual input we encounter quickly and correctly is an enormous computational effort for the brain. This kind of hypersensitivity might act as a useful shortcut. After all, seeing illusory faces is usually harmless, while missing a real face can lead to serious issues. But for hypersensitivity to be more helpful than harmful, your brain also needs to be quick at determining when a face is real and when it isnât
A: How fast can my brain tell when theyâve been duped?
B: The brain generally recognizes a face as illusory within a quarter of a second, around the same time that we can identify most non-face visual stimuli. However, even after your brain knows the face is fake, you can still see it in the object. By messing with these brain areas, you can further impact your ability to differentiate between fact from fiction