Seeing faces Flashcards
Pareidolia
Seeing faces in everything, also non-alive things. Knowing that it’s not a face but perceiving it as such
Seen in activaty in FFA and OFA, but the response is less strong than real faces. Can be classified from brain activity; slight delay visible in MEG response
Face Cells
In the inferotemporal (IT) cortex in monkeys. The neurons respond to faces, not to other objects/scrambled faces/essential face parts missing. They respond stronger to faces of monkeys than humans (humans equal) and less lateralized than in humans.
- May be tuned to angle
- Direction of gaze
- Emotional expression
- Identity (medial temporal lobe)
Grandmother cells
Idea that higher order cells respond only to very specific/complex/meaningful stimulus. Aka Jennifer Aniston cell.
Not just visual, also respond to sound/name
FFA
Fusiform Face Area, mostly prominent in righ hemisphere. Visual expertise area
Other face areas
Occipital face area
Superior Temporal Sulcus (STS)
Parahippocampal Place Area (PPA)
- Place areas (PPA) respond to stimuli with a location or place element, eg landscape or houses.
The N170 response
Face selective response recorded with EEG show that potential comes after 170 ms.
No matter if its profile, inverted, animal or mooney (solely contrast)
Not to faceless objects or inverted faces
Face inversion effect
When upside down, faces are a lot more difficult to recognize. Also, big distortions aren’t noticed as quick as when right side
Seen in experiment with face vs. car processing; drop in performance was way larger for faces than cars.
Inversion experiment (Farah)
experiment where subjects answered if the next picture in series was the same as the last one
Students; 95% upright, 82% inverted
Prosopagnostic: 58% upright 72% inverted.
Proof that upsidedown faces are processed as objects by prosopagnostics
