This next article is very relevant when it comes to the Paranormal. The research below has to do with the main reason why we as humans have a tendency to see faces in seemingly random patterns. Often times I have come across various pictures on the net from people claiming to see faces of spirits etc in pics, when it is nothing more than the phenomena below at work.
New research demonstrates that the brain might not have specific mechanisms for facial recognition.
The human brain is widely thought to be adept at facial recognition but a study by Georgetown University Medical Center scientists suggests that the brain may not have developed the ability specifically for faces.
?Understanding faces? may be sourced from the same kind of pattern recognition techniques used to distinguish between other groups of objects, such as animals, plants and cars.
The study adds new evidence to the debate over how the brain understands and interprets faces ? a controversial area of neuroscience.
?We found that faces aren?t special in the way many scientists once thought,? said Maximilian Riesenhuber, assistant professor of neuroscience and senior author of the study.
?Rather, they are particular group of objects which the brain has learned to distinguish very well, much as it would for any other similar objects that are critical to human survival and communication.
?Riesenhuber and his team thought that a brand new model could help explain some of the existing knowledge about facial recognition, including a behavioural phenomenon known as the ?inversion effect?.
The inversion effect shows that turning a picture upside down has a strong effect on people?s ability to recognise faces whereas the ability to recognise other objects, such as houses, is only slightly affected.
?We think that this is because we are face ?experts,? having learned over many years to spot fine differences in upright faces, but not in inverted faces.
?That experience makes faces unique, but there?s nothing scientifically special about faces,? Riesenhuber added.
The team found a small group of neurons in the fusiform face area ? the area of the brain thought to be responsible for face recognition.
This area was highly selective for different faces, just as the model predicted it would behave.
?We knew that the fusiform face area is highly involved and necessary for us to understand faces, but we did not know what kind of processing was going on inside that ?black box?,? Riesenhuber said.
?By using a computational model to quantitatively link neuronal processing, brain imaging and behaviour, we now have a mechanistic model describing which neurons are involved and how they are behaving when we look at faces.
?The author hopes that the research will help other scientists understand the neural basis of object recognition in mental disorders, such as autism, dyslexia or schizophrenia.
People with autism, for example, experience difficulty with recognising faces, which might be caused by a defect on the neural level.
Breakthroughs in this kind of research could some day lead to targeted therapies for the millions of people who suffer from these disorders.
?The findings are exciting because we are now going to apply this technique to probe the neural bases of face perception deficits in autism,? Riesenhuber said.
Source: http://www.scenta.co.uk/scenta/news.cfm ... ent_view_1
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