Neural mechanisms underlying visual pareidolia processing: An fMRI study

Akdeniz, Gülsüm; Toker, Sila; Atlı, İbrahim

doi:10.12669/pjms.346.16140

Cited by 21 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…us, we postulate that the evoked larger N170 response in PD patients during face-pareidolia perception may result from altered interaction between topdown and bottom-up brain region modulation from higher frontal cortical areas due to the damage of dopaminergic pathways in the disease. Our findings support the results of Akdeniz's and colleagues' study which demonstrated that fMRI scans were performed on 20 healthy subjects under real-face and face-pareidolia conditions [17]. ey found that face pareidolia requires interaction between top-down and bottom-up brain regions including the fusiform face area and frontal and occipitotemporal areas.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

“…Pareidolia, are complex visual hallucination-like illusions involving ambiguous forms that is the interpretation of previously unseen and unrelated objects as familiar due to previous learning [17]. Patients with PD without dementia have been reported to be present in about visual hallucinations 10% [18][19][20] and visual illusion in 6-19% [19,20].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Event-Related Potentials Elicited by Face and Face Pareidolia in Parkinson’s Disease

Akdeniz

Vural

Gümüşyayla

et al. 2020

Parkinson's Disease

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Background. Parkinson’s disease is associated with impaired ability to recognize emotional facial expressions. In addition to a visual processing disorder, a visual recognition disorder may be involved in these patients. Pareidolia is a type of complex visual illusion that permits the interpretation of a vague stimulus as something known to the observer. Parkinson’s patients experience pareidolic illusions. N170 and N250 waveforms are two event-related potentials (ERPs) involved in emotional facial expression recognition. Objective. In this study, we investigated how Parkinson’s patients process face and face-pareidolia stimuli at the neural level using N170, vertex positive potential (VPP), and N250 components of event-related potentials. Methods. To examine the response of face and face-pareidolia processing in Parkinson’s patients, we measured the N170, VPP, and N250 components of the event-related brain potentials in a group of 21 participants with Parkinson’s disease and 26 control participants. Results. We found that the latencies of N170 and VPP responses to both face and face-pareidolia stimuli were increased along with their amplitudes, and the amplitude of N250 responses decreased in Parkinson’s patients compared to the control group. In both control and Parkinson’s patients, face stimuli generated greater ERP amplitude and shorter latency in responses than did face-pareidolia stimuli. Conclusion. The results of our study showed that ERPs associated with face and also face-pareidolia stimuli processing are changed in early-stage neurophysiological activity in the temporoparietal cortex of Parkinson’s patients.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Event-Related Potentials Elicited by Face and Face Pareidolia in Parkinson’s Disease

Akdeniz

Vural

Gümüşyayla

et al. 2020

Parkinson's Disease

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“…2009 ). Whole-brain fMRI analysis indicates that in a sample of predominately female TD adults, perception of faces and face-like images elicits similar activation in the occipital cortices, FFA, and inferior temporal areas ( Akdeniz et al. 2018 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Face Tuning in Depression

et al. 2020

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The latest COVID-19 pandemic reveals that unexpected changes elevate depression bringing people apart, but also calling for social sharing. Yet the impact of depression on social cognition and functioning is not well understood. Assessment of social cognition is crucial not only for a better understanding of major depressive disorder (MDD), but also for screening, intervention, and remediation. Here by applying a novel experimental tool, a Face-n-Food task comprising a set of images bordering on the Giuseppe Arcimboldo style, we assessed the face tuning in patients with MDD and person-by-person matched controls. The key benefit of these images is that single components do not trigger face processing. Contrary to common beliefs, the outcome indicates that individuals with depression express intact face responsiveness. Yet, while in depression face sensitivity is tied with perceptual organization, in typical development, it is knotted with social cognition capabilities. Face tuning in depression, therefore, may rely upon altered behavioral strategies and underwriting brain mechanisms. To exclude a possible camouflaging effect of female social skills, we examined gender impact. Neither in depression nor in typical individuals had females excelled in face tuning. The outcome sheds light on the origins of the face sensitivity and alterations in social functioning in depression and mental well-being at large. Aberrant social functioning in depression is likely to be the result of deeply-rooted maladaptive strategies rather than of poor sensitivity to social signals. This has implications for mental well-being under the current pandemic conditions.

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“…Such preference in species with no parental care advocates the existence of a general mechanism to detect animacy in the natural environment [12]. Brain imaging such as functional magnetic resonance imaging, fMRI [13,14], magnetoencephalography, MEG [15], and electroencephalography, EEG [16][17][18][19] reveal that real faces and face-like nonface images activate similar occipito-temporal brain clusters with a hub in the fusiform face area, FFA (for review, see [20,21]). Face impression in such images usually arises spontaneously without any efforts.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Face pareidolia in the brain: Impact of gender and orientation

et al. 2020

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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.

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Neural mechanisms underlying visual pareidolia processing: An fMRI study

Cited by 21 publications

References 31 publications

Event-Related Potentials Elicited by Face and Face Pareidolia in Parkinson’s Disease

Event-Related Potentials Elicited by Face and Face Pareidolia in Parkinson’s Disease

Face Tuning in Depression

Face pareidolia in the brain: Impact of gender and orientation

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