Pareidolia in Infants

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0118539

Paper

Pareidolia in Infants

Published Feb 17, 2015 · Masaharu Kato, Ryoko Mugitani

PLoS ONE

Q1 SJR score

35

Citations

0

Influential Citations

PDF

Semantic Scholar

Abstract

Faces convey primal information for our social life. This information is so primal that we sometimes find faces in non-face objects. Such illusory perception is called pareidolia. In this study, using infants’ orientation behavior toward a sound source, we demonstrated that infants also perceive pareidolic faces. An image formed by four blobs and an outline was shown to infants with or without pure tones, and the time they spent looking at each blob was compared. Since the mouth is the unique sound source in a face and the literature has shown that infants older than 6 months already have sound-mouth association, increased looking time towards the bottom blob (pareidolic mouth area) during sound presentation indicated that they illusorily perceive a face in the image. Infants aged 10 and 12 months looked longer at the bottom blob under the upright-image condition, whereas no differences in looking time were observed for any blob under the inverted-image condition. However, 8-month-olds did not show any difference in looking time under both the upright and inverted conditions, suggesting that the perception of pareidolic faces, through sound association, comes to develop at around 8 to 10 months after birth.

Non-RCT

Rigorous Journal

Study Snapshot

Key takeawayInfants can perceive pareidolic faces through sound association, developing this ability around 8 to 10 months after birth.

PopulationOlder adults (50-71 years)

Sample size24

MethodsObservational

OutcomesBody Mass Index projections

ResultsSocial networks mitigate obesity in older groups.

Sign up to use Study Snapshot

Consensus is limited without an account. Create an account or sign in to get more searches and use the Study Snapshot.

Create an account

Paper

Pareidolia in Infants

Sign up to use Study Snapshot

References

Seeing Jesus in toast: Neural and behavioral correlates of face pareidolia

The right fusiform face area plays a specific role in illusory face perception, with the right fusiform face area activating when participants "see" faces in pure-noise images.

Increased focus on the mouth among infants in the first year of life: A longitudinal eye-tracking study.

Infants in the first year of life tend to focus more on the mouth than the eyes, with increased attention to the mouth at 9 and 12 months, but individual differences in face scanning may predict later development.

Where and how infants look: the development of scan paths and fixations in face perception.

Infants collect facial information more efficiently from upright faces, but this ability gradually develops and preferences for inverted faces gradually replace upright faces by approximately 10 months of age.

Infants deploy selective attention to the mouth of a talking face when learning speech

Infants shift their attention from the eyes to the mouth of a talking face when learning speech, gaining access to redundant audiovisual cues, and then shift back to the eyes for social cues at 12 months.

Effect of auditory input on activations in infant diverse cortical regions during audiovisual processing

Auditory input in 3-month-old infants during audiovisual processing induces specific changes in each cortical region, suggesting multisensory interplay in early brain development.

Citations

Seeing Faces in Things: A Model and Dataset for Pareidolia

Human visual system can detect faces in random stimuli, leading to face pareidolia, with a significant behavioral gap between humans and machines.

Systematic Face Pareidolia Generation Method Using Cycle‐Consistent Adversarial Networks

This study developed a systematic method to generate face pareidolia stimuli using cycle-consistent adversarial networks, enabling the generation of pareidolia-inducing stimuli from face data sets.

Conversations with Caves: The Role of Pareidolia in the Upper Palaeolithic Figurative Art of Las Monedas and La Pasiega (Cantabria, Spain)

Pareidolia strongly influences the placement of figurative images in Upper Palaeolithic cave art, while lighting conditions play little or no role in determining image form or placement.

Art by firelight? Using experimental and digital techniques to explore Magdalenian engraved plaquette use at Montastruc (France)

Plaquettes from Montastruc were likely positioned near hearths during low ambient light conditions, making engraved forms appear dynamic and alive, potentially impacting their use and interpretation.

Face Perception and Pareidolia Production in Patients With Parkinson's Disease

Parkinson's disease patients are less likely to recognize embedded faces and more likely to perceive faces in locations where none are actually present, possibly due to disturbed interactions between the Dorsal and Ventral Attention Networks.

Social cognition in individuals born preterm

Preterm birth survivors with periventricular leukomalacia exhibit significant deficits in face tuning, impacting social functioning and daily life quality.

Pareidolias and Creativity in Patients with Mental Disorders

Pareidolias are positively correlated with high creativity and personality traits like impulsiveness, extraversion, and conscientiousness in patients with affective disorder or schizophrenia.

Face pareidolia in the brain: Impact of gender and orientation

Face sensitivity is significantly impeded by display inversion and is more prevalent in females, potentially impacting neuropsychiatric conditions related to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Face Tuning in Depression

Depression affects face responsiveness, but it may be influenced by maladaptive strategies rather than poor sensitivity to social signals.