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Saurels BW, Peluso N, Taubert J. A behavioral advantage for the face pareidolia illusion in peripheral vision. Sci Rep 2024; 14:10040. [PMID: 38693189 PMCID: PMC11063176 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-60892-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/31/2023] [Accepted: 04/29/2024] [Indexed: 05/03/2024] Open
Abstract
Investigation of visual illusions helps us understand how we process visual information. For example, face pareidolia, the misperception of illusory faces in objects, could be used to understand how we process real faces. However, it remains unclear whether this illusion emerges from errors in face detection or from slower, cognitive processes. Here, our logic is straightforward; if examples of face pareidolia activate the mechanisms that rapidly detect faces in visual environments, then participants will look at objects more quickly when the objects also contain illusory faces. To test this hypothesis, we sampled continuous eye movements during a fast saccadic choice task-participants were required to select either faces or food items. During this task, pairs of stimuli were positioned close to the initial fixation point or further away, in the periphery. As expected, the participants were faster to look at face targets than food targets. Importantly, we also discovered an advantage for food items with illusory faces but, this advantage was limited to the peripheral condition. These findings are among the first to demonstrate that the face pareidolia illusion persists in the periphery and, thus, it is likely to be a consequence of erroneous face detection.
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Affiliation(s)
- Blake W Saurels
- School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia
| | - Natalie Peluso
- School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia
| | - Jessica Taubert
- School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia.
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2
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Romagnano V, Sokolov AN, Steinwand P, Fallgatter AJ, Pavlova MA. Face pareidolia in male schizophrenia. SCHIZOPHRENIA (HEIDELBERG, GERMANY) 2022; 8:112. [PMID: 36517504 PMCID: PMC9751144 DOI: 10.1038/s41537-022-00315-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/24/2022] [Accepted: 11/09/2022] [Indexed: 05/22/2023]
Abstract
Faces are valuable signals for efficient social interaction. Yet, social cognition including the sensitivity to a coarse face scheme may be deviant in schizophrenia (SZ). Tuning to faces in non-face images such as shadows, grilled toasts, or ink blots is termed face pareidolia. This phenomenon is poorly investigated in SZ. Here face tuning was assessed in 44 male participants with SZ and person-by-person matched controls by using recently created Face-n-Thing images (photographs of non-face objects to a varying degree resembling a face). The advantage of these images is that single components do not automatically trigger face processing. Participants were administered a set of images with upright and inverted (180° in the image plane) orientation. In a two-alternative forced-choice paradigm, they had to indicate whether an image resembled a face. The findings showed that: (i) With upright orientation, SZ patients exhibited deficits in face tuning: they provided much fewer face responses than controls. (ii) Inversion generally hindered face pareidolia. However, while in neurotypical males, inversion led to a drastic drop in face impression, in SZ, the impact of orientation was reduced. (iii) Finally, in accord with the signal detection theory analysis, the sensitivity index (d-prime) was lower in SZ, whereas no difference occurred in decision criterion. The outcome suggests altered face pareidolia in SZ is caused by lower face sensitivity rather than by alterations in cognitive bias. Comparison of these findings with earlier evidence confirms that tuning to social signals is lower in SZ, and warrants tailored brain imaging research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Valentina Romagnano
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical School and University Hospital, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, and Tübingen Center for Mental Health (TüCMH), Tübingen, Germany
| | - Alexander N Sokolov
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical School and University Hospital, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, and Tübingen Center for Mental Health (TüCMH), Tübingen, Germany
| | - Patrick Steinwand
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical School and University Hospital, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, and Tübingen Center for Mental Health (TüCMH), Tübingen, Germany
| | - Andreas J Fallgatter
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical School and University Hospital, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, and Tübingen Center for Mental Health (TüCMH), Tübingen, Germany
| | - Marina A Pavlova
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical School and University Hospital, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, and Tübingen Center for Mental Health (TüCMH), Tübingen, Germany.
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Caruana N, Seymour K. Objects that induce face pareidolia are prioritized by the visual system. Br J Psychol 2021; 113:496-507. [PMID: 34923634 DOI: 10.1111/bjop.12546] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/27/2021] [Accepted: 12/03/2021] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
The human visual system has evolved specialized neural mechanisms to rapidly detect faces. Its broad tuning for facial features is thought to underlie the illusory perception of faces in inanimate objects, a phenomenon called face pareidolia. Recent studies on face pareidolia suggest that the mechanisms underlying face processing, at least at the early stages of visual encoding, may treat objects that resemble faces as real faces; prioritizing their detection. In our study, we used breaking continuous flash suppression (b-CFS) to examine whether the human visual system prioritizes the detection of objects that induce face pareidolia over stimuli matched for object content. Similar to previous b-CFS results using real face stimuli, we found that participants detected the objects with pareidolia faces faster than object-matched control stimuli. Given that face pareidolia has been more frequently reported amongst individuals prone to hallucinations, we also explored whether this rapid prioritization is intact in individuals with schizophrenia, and found evidence suggesting that it was. Our findings suggest that face pareidolia engages a broadly tuned mechanism that facilitates rapid face detection. This may involve the proposed fast subcortical pathway that operates outside of visual awareness.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nathan Caruana
- Department of Cognitive Science, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.,Perception in Action Research Centre, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Kiley Seymour
- School of Psychology, Western Sydney University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.,The MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.,Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany
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Göbel N, Möller JC, Hollenstein N, Binder A, Oechsner M, Ide J, Urwyler P, Cazzoli D, Müri RM. Face Perception and Pareidolia Production in Patients With Parkinson's Disease. Front Neurol 2021; 12:669691. [PMID: 34413822 PMCID: PMC8370466 DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2021.669691] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/23/2021] [Accepted: 07/09/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
In Parkinson's disease (PD) patients, visual misperceptions are a major problem within the non-motor symptoms. Pareidolia, i.e., the tendency to perceive a specific, meaningful image in an ambiguous visual pattern, is a phenomenon that occurs also in healthy subjects. Literature suggests that the perception of face pareidolia may be increased in patients with neurodegenerative diseases. We aimed to examine, within the same experiment, face perception and the production of face pareidolia in PD patients and healthy controls (HC). Thirty participants (15 PD patients and 15 HC) were presented with 47 naturalistic photographs in which faces were embedded or not. The likelihood to perceive the embedded faces was modified by manipulating their transparency. Participants were asked to decide for each photograph whether a face was embedded or not. We found that PD patients were significantly less likely to recognize embedded faces than controls. However, PD patients also perceived faces significantly more often in locations where none were actually present than controls. Linear regression analyses showed that gender, age, hallucinations, and Multiple-Choice Vocabulary Intelligence Test (MWT) score were significant predictors of face pareidolia production in PD patients. Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) was a significant predictor for pareidolia production in PD patients in trials in which a face was embedded in another region [F (1, 13) = 24.4, p = <0.001]. We conclude that our new embedded faces paradigm is a useful tool to distinguish face perception performance between HC and PD patients. Furthermore, we speculate that our results observed in PD patients rely on disturbed interactions between the Dorsal (DAN) and Ventral Attention Networks (VAN). In photographs in which a face is present, the VAN may detect this as a behaviourally relevant stimulus. However, due to the deficient communication with the DAN in PD patients, the DAN would not direct attention to the correct location, identifying a face at a location where actually none is present.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicole Göbel
- Perception and Eye Movement Laboratory, Departments of Neurology and BioMedical Research, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, and University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.,Department of Neurology, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Jens Carsten Möller
- Rehaklinik Zihlschlacht, Centre for Neurological Rehabilitation, Zihlschlacht-Sitterdorf, Switzerland.,Department of Neurology, Philipps University, Marburg, Germany
| | - Nathalie Hollenstein
- Rehaklinik Zihlschlacht, Centre for Neurological Rehabilitation, Zihlschlacht-Sitterdorf, Switzerland
| | - Andreas Binder
- Rehaklinik Zihlschlacht, Centre for Neurological Rehabilitation, Zihlschlacht-Sitterdorf, Switzerland
| | - Matthias Oechsner
- Rehaklinik Zihlschlacht, Centre for Neurological Rehabilitation, Zihlschlacht-Sitterdorf, Switzerland
| | - Jörg Ide
- Rehaklinik Zihlschlacht, Centre for Neurological Rehabilitation, Zihlschlacht-Sitterdorf, Switzerland
| | - Prabitha Urwyler
- Department of Neurology, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, Bern, Switzerland.,Gerontechnology and Rehabilitation Group, ARTORG Center, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Dario Cazzoli
- Perception and Eye Movement Laboratory, Departments of Neurology and BioMedical Research, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, and University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.,Department of Neurology, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, Bern, Switzerland.,Gerontechnology and Rehabilitation Group, ARTORG Center, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - René M Müri
- Perception and Eye Movement Laboratory, Departments of Neurology and BioMedical Research, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, and University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.,Department of Neurology, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, Bern, Switzerland.,Gerontechnology and Rehabilitation Group, ARTORG Center, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
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Pavlova MA, Romagnano V, Fallgatter AJ, Sokolov AN. Face pareidolia in the brain: Impact of gender and orientation. PLoS One 2021; 15:e0244516. [PMID: 33382767 PMCID: PMC7774913 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0244516] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/08/2020] [Accepted: 12/10/2020] [Indexed: 02/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Research on face sensitivity is of particular relevance during the rapidly evolving Covid-19 pandemic leading to social isolation, but also calling for intact interaction and sharing. Humans possess high sensitivity even to a coarse face scheme, seeing faces in non-face images where real faces do not exist. The advantage of non-face images is that single components do not trigger face processing. Here by implementing a novel set of Face-n-Thing images, we examined (i) how face tuning alters with changing display orientation, and (ii) whether it is affected by observers’ gender. Young females and males were presented with a set of Face-n-Thing images either with canonical upright orientation or inverted 180° in the image plane. Face impression was substantially impeded by display inversion. Furthermore, whereas with upright display orientation, no gender differences were found, with inversion, Face-n-Thing images elicited face impression in females significantly more often. The outcome sheds light on the origins of the face inversion effect in general. Moreover, the findings open a way for examination of face sensitivity and underwriting brain networks in neuropsychiatric conditions related to the current pandemic (such as depression and anxiety), most of which are gender/sex-specific.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marina A. Pavlova
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical School and University Hospital, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- * E-mail:
| | - Valentina Romagnano
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical School and University Hospital, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Andreas J. Fallgatter
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical School and University Hospital, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- LEAD Graduate School & Research Network, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- German Center for Neurodegenerative Disorders (DZNE), Medical School and University Hospital, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Alexander N. Sokolov
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical School and University Hospital, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
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