Face pareidolia in the brain: Impact of gender and orientation.
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 no...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2020-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0244516 |
| _version_ | 1819035519707774976 |
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| author | Marina A Pavlova Valentina Romagnano Andreas J Fallgatter Alexander N Sokolov |
| author_facet | Marina A Pavlova Valentina Romagnano Andreas J Fallgatter Alexander N Sokolov |
| author_sort | Marina A Pavlova |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | 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. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-21T07:50:55Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-238bd83ac2d441138c3e562ba15237cc |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-21T07:50:55Z |
| publishDate | 2020-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj.art-238bd83ac2d441138c3e562ba15237cc2022-12-21T19:11:05ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032020-01-011512e024451610.1371/journal.pone.0244516Face pareidolia in the brain: Impact of gender and orientation.Marina A PavlovaValentina RomagnanoAndreas J FallgatterAlexander N SokolovResearch 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.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0244516 |
| spellingShingle | Marina A Pavlova Valentina Romagnano Andreas J Fallgatter Alexander N Sokolov Face pareidolia in the brain: Impact of gender and orientation. PLoS ONE |
| title | Face pareidolia in the brain: Impact of gender and orientation. |
| title_full | Face pareidolia in the brain: Impact of gender and orientation. |
| title_fullStr | Face pareidolia in the brain: Impact of gender and orientation. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Face pareidolia in the brain: Impact of gender and orientation. |
| title_short | Face pareidolia in the brain: Impact of gender and orientation. |
| title_sort | face pareidolia in the brain impact of gender and orientation |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0244516 |
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