Face pareidolia in the brain: Impact of gender and orientation

Pavlova, Marina; Romagnano, Valentina; Fallgatter, Andreas J.; Sokolov, Alexander N.

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0244516

Cited by 15 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 92 publications

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“…The present work was aimed at investigation of face pareidolia in males with SZ. We also explored a potential impact of display orientation on face pareidolia as display inversion substantially impairs face impression 62 , and serves a proper control for face recognition. The findings indicated: (i) With upright orientation, males with SZ exhibited lower face tuning to face-like images.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…None of them had a history of neurological or psychiatric disorders including SZ, autism spectrum disorders (ASD), or major depressive disorder (MDD), and regular intake of medication. TD participants matched to SZ individuals were either recruited from the local community (10 out of 22, 45.45%) or their data sets were taken from our earlier study conducted in TD individuals with the same experimental design 62 .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The task is described in detail elsewhere 62 . In brief, participants were administered a computer version of the Face-n-Thing task by using Presentation software (Neurobehavioral Systems, Inc., Albany, CA, USA).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Face pareidolia in male schizophrenia

et al. 2022

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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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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Face pareidolia in male schizophrenia

et al. 2022

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“…Gender (a social construct) and sex (a neurobiological one) of observers are essential for performance on a wide range of social cognition tasks tapping bodies, faces, and eyes reading ( Pavlova et al, 2010 ; Kret et al, 2011 ; Sokolov et al, 2011 ; Kirkland et al, 2013 ; Krüger et al, 2013 ; Pavlova et al, 2015 , 2016 , 2020 ; He et al, 2018 , Dodell-Feder et al, 2020 ; Isernia et al, 2020 ; Kynast et al, 2021 ; see Pavlova and Sokolov, 2022b , for a most recent analysis of reading in the eyes). In the same vein, female but not male common marmosets ( Callithrix jacchus ) are reported to exhibit curiosity to point-light biological motion ( Brown et al, 2010 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ties between reading faces, bodies, eyes, and autistic traits

Pavlova

Romagnano²,

Kubon³

et al. 2022

Front. Neurosci.

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While reading covered with masks faces during the COVID-19 pandemic, for efficient social interaction, we need to combine information from different sources such as the eyes (without faces hidden by masks) and bodies. This may be challenging for individuals with neuropsychiatric conditions, in particular, autism spectrum disorders. Here we examined whether reading of dynamic faces, bodies, and eyes are tied in a gender-specific way, and how these capabilities are related to autistic traits expression. Females and males accomplished a task with point-light faces along with a task with point-light body locomotion portraying different emotional expressions. They had to infer emotional content of displays. In addition, participants were administered the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test, modified and Autism Spectrum Quotient questionnaire. The findings show that only in females, inferring emotions from dynamic bodies and faces are firmly linked, whereas in males, reading in the eyes is knotted with face reading. Strikingly, in neurotypical males only, accuracy of face, body, and eyes reading was negatively tied with autistic traits. The outcome points to gender-specific modes in social cognition: females rely upon merely dynamic cues while reading faces and bodies, whereas males most likely trust configural information. The findings are of value for examination of face and body language reading in neuropsychiatric conditions, in particular, autism, most of which are gender/sex-specific. This work suggests that if male individuals with autistic traits experience difficulties in reading covered with masks faces, these deficits may be unlikely compensated by reading (even dynamic) bodies and faces. By contrast, in females, reading covered faces as well as reading language of dynamic bodies and faces are not compulsorily connected to autistic traits preventing them from paying high costs for maladaptive social interaction.

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“…Some individuals report seeing a face in the clouds, religious figures in their toast, or a face in their car headlights. While common, face pareidolia experience can vary between individuals depending on their gender and personality traits (Pavlova et al, 2020;Proverbio & Galli, 2016;Salge et al, 2019;Wardle et al, 2022). Even non-human primates appear to experience face pareidolia (Taubert et al, 2017).…”

Section: Face Pareidoliamentioning

confidence: 99%

How Are We Drawn to Faces When There Are None? Visual Attention to Faces, Objects, and Pareidolia Faces

Collyer¹

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<p>The human visual system is very sensitive to the presence of faces in the environment. This sensitivity results in the detection of illusory faces in non-face objects, a phenomenon called face pareidolia. In this thesis, I investigate visual attention to pareidolia faces and use it to understand the mechanisms underlying attention to real faces. I focused on two key aspects of visual attention – temporal attention and spatial attention. I examined temporal attention with a set of experiments using the attentional blink paradigm, and I examined spatial attention with a set of experiments using the visual search paradigm. In both sets of experiments, I measured attention to pareidolia faces relative to real faces and control objects. I found consistent results across temporal and spatial experiments which showed an attentional advantage to pareidolia faces compared to control objects. However, pareidolia faces did not capture visual attention as effectively as real faces. Further analyses indicate that attention to pareidolia faces could not be explained by subjective impressions of face-ness in the pareidolia images or computational models of lower-level information in the images. These findings suggest that attention to pareidolia faces is driven by the basic face configuration rather than the details of face parts, whereas attention to real faces is driven by both.</p>

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Face pareidolia in the brain: Impact of gender and orientation

Cited by 15 publications

References 92 publications

Face pareidolia in male schizophrenia

Face pareidolia in male schizophrenia

Ties between reading faces, bodies, eyes, and autistic traits

How Are We Drawn to Faces When There Are None? Visual Attention to Faces, Objects, and Pareidolia Faces

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