Understanding illusory face perception in the human brain

doi:10.32470/CCN.2018.1203-0

Paper

Understanding illusory face perception in the human brain

Published 2018 · S. Wardle, J. Taubert, L. Teichmann

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Abstract

Face pareidolia is the spontaneous misperception of illusory faces in inanimate objects. As a natural error of face detection, investigation of face pareidolia has potential to reveal new insight into the mechanisms underlying face and object recognition in the primate brain. To understand the temporal dynamics of illusory face perception, here we used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to measure the brain activation patterns of 22 human participants in response to 32 illusory faces in inanimate objects, 32 similar non-face objects, and 32 human faces. We compared the time-varying brain activation patterns to the representations of the stimuli obtained with common pre-trained deep neural networks and computational models of visual saliency. Whereas the saliency models showed an early and limited correlation with the MEG data peaking at ~100ms after stimulus onset, the deep neural networks showed a greater and sustained correlation across the time-course which generally increased with layer depth. However, both forms of computational model were outperformed by a simple model which grouped stimuli by category (faces versus objects). Together the results highlight that the dynamic response of the human brain to complex natural stimuli is only partially captured by existing computational models.

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Key takeawayThe human brain's dynamic response to complex natural stimuli is only partially captured by existing computational models, with a simple category-based model outperforming both deep neural networks and visual saliency models.

PopulationOlder adults (50-71 years)

Sample size24

MethodsObservational

OutcomesBody Mass Index projections

ResultsSocial networks mitigate obesity in older groups.

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Understanding illusory face perception in the human brain

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References

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