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Facing up to ordinary things

Have you ever seen a smiley face in your morning cup of tea, or a shocked expression on a terraced house? Australian scientists have discovered that we’re hardwired that way – our brains process the ‘faces’ we’re seeing in inanimate objects in the exact same way as human faces. <div class="copy"> Rapid facial processing – identifying and studying a human face quickly – is a core part of human socialisation, says David Alais, a researcher at the University of Sydney and lead author on a new <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.0966" target="_blank">study</a> published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. “We are a highly evolved social species, and therefore rapidly detecting and recognising faces is incredibly important,” he says. “We have a whole brain area dedicated to face processing. Faces convey meaning and emotion in ways that <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3203018/" target="_blank">help us interact</a> with one another and understand each others’ motivations, which is especially handy for detecting danger or prospecting for mates. However, our brains erroneously perceive faces and expressions in day-to-day objects – a process known as face pareidolia – because brains have a shortcut to facial recognition that identifies the common structure of two eyes over a nose and mouth. “The way the brain detects faces is to use a quick and dirty method to make sure it detects them fast,” says Alais. “So the thing with pareidolia images is they satisfy that basic global structure – two eyes, a nose and a mouth – and so trigger that rapid response.” The research team, from the University of Sydney, wanted to understand whether the brain identified the error, or processed the object as a face. They examined 17 university students across two experiments, showing them 40 images of real faces and 40 images of inanimate objects with strong pareidolia. Each image was displayed for 250 milliseconds, then rated by the participant for emotional expression. Each participants’ ratings were averaged into a mean estimate of the image’s expression, and the results showed that variability in rated expressions was the same between the human and non-human faces. Further, the rating of the perceived expression of each face – whether the face was real or not – was skewed towards the rating of the expression of the previous face. This is known as positive serial dependence, but it disappears for human faces if they are rotated, so its occurrence between the real and illusory faces suggests that pareidolia engages the same mechanisms in the brain as the recognition of actual human faces. The authors conclude that expression processing is a broader process than once thought, and is not tightly linked to human facial features. “Clearly, the negative consequences of mistaking an object for a face are probably much less than the consequences of missing a face, because it might be an enemy with aggressive intent,” says Alais. He adds that it’s particularly interesting that the brain does not correct these errors. “You might think that the slower cognitive processes come in and you realise it’s actually not a face. “And yet somehow, you keep perceiving it as a face and you process it for its emotional content. So you end up with that weird experience where you know it’s an object and yet you keep seeing a face.” Alais attributes this overpowering perception to the key importance of social interaction and facial recognition to our species’ survival: “We’re highly evolved socially; we can’t afford not to look at faces." Image: Getty Images  <img id="cosmos-post-tracker" style="opacity: 0; height: 1px!important; width: 1px!important; border: 0!important; position: absolute!important; z-index: -1!important;" src="https://syndication.cosmosmagazine.com/?id=157752&title=Facing+up+to+ordinary+things" alt="" width="1" height="1" /> </div> <div id="contributors"> <a rel="noopener" href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/health/body-and-mind/facing-up-to-ordinary-things/" target="_blank">This article</a> was originally published on <a rel="noopener" href="https://cosmosmagazine.com" target="_blank">Cosmos Magazine</a> and was written by <a rel="noopener" href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/contributor/amalyah-hart" target="_blank">Amalyah Hart</a>. Amalyah Hart is a science journalist based in Melbourne. </div>

Mind

5 unbelievable facts about the human body

The human body is home to all sorts of complicated machinery, which come with a few unusual quirks. Here are five facts about the human body, which are as unbelievable as they are true. 1. Wisdom teeth have no purpose (anymore) Having not needed them for over 10,000 years, wisdom teeth have become an annoyance that sometimes requires removal. The teeth are believed to have been useful when our ancestors used to eat coarse, rough food, like nuts, meats, leaves, and roots. As humans started to eat softer foods and their brains grew bigger, the space in the mouth reduced and effectively crowded out this third set of molars. 2. Fingernails don’t keep growing after you die While it might look like nails continue to grow after death, they aren’t actually growing. Instead, dehydration in the skin causes it to retract around the nail, making it appear longer. The same optical illusion also applies to hair. 3. We breathe through one nostril at a time If you stop to notice your breathing, you might realise that as you breathe through your nose that the air goes in through one nostril and out the other. This is known as the nasal cycle, and the nostrils will swap roles every few hours. This is also why you’ll notice it’s harder to breathe when only one nostril is blocked, even though the other is free of congestion. 4. Thumbs have their own pulse When taking your pulse, you will have been taught to take it from your wrist and using your fingers rather than your thumb. This is because your thumb has its own pulse that you can feel, which differs from your actual pulse and can cause confusion. 5. Our tongues are made up of eight muscles The eight muscles are classified into two groups: intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic muscles are responsible for changing the shape of the tongue and aren’t attached to bone, while the extrinsic muscles change the position of the tongue and are anchored to bone. This structure is similar to that of an elephant’s trunk or an octopus’ limb. Image: Getty Images

Body

This common quirk is a sign of intelligence

A couple of months ago, <a href="http://www.oversixty.com.au/health/mind/2017/05/personality-trait-indicates-intelligence/" target="_blank">we learnt</a> that people who talk to themselves could in fact be smarter than those who don’t. Now, researchers have taken it a step further, discovering that talking to pets is also a sign of intelligence. According to Nicholas Epley, professor of behavioural science at the University of Chicago and author of Mindwise: How We Understand What Others Think, Believe, Feel and Want, believes that talking to pets, plants and other non-human things is what makes humans so unique – and so smart. “Historically, anthropomorphising has been treated as a sign of childishness or stupidity, but it’s actually a natural by-product of the tendency that makes humans uniquely smart on this planet,” he tells <a href="https://qz.com/935832/why-do-people-name-their-plants-cars-ships-and-guitars-anthropomorphism-may-actually-signal-social-intelligence/" target="_blank">Quartz</a>. “No other species that has this tendency.” It’s the reason why we name our cars, assign human emotions to our animal friends, describe the weather as “threatening” or “angry”. It’s simply a symptom of active, smart and social brains. And it’s not a new phenomenon, either. According to Ingrid Piller, professor of linguistics at Macquarie University, anthropomorphisation has been going on for more than a thousand years. “If you’re a legendary knight, you trust and defend your life through your weapon, and if you’re on a ship a few hundred years ago, your life is at the mercy of the vessel,” she explains. “You name the vessel because it becomes your most important companion. You want to believe it has vested interest in keeping you safe – even though it truly has no interests at all.” This same mental framework also explains why we see faces everywhere – in the sky, in our food… heck, some people even <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/arielknutson/people-who-found-jesus-in-their-food?utm_term=.aq1gLQWYRK#.ink5vJOVWm" target="_blank">swear they’ve seen Jesus</a> in a potato chip, slice of toast and a banana. So rest easy – if you’re seeing faces and talking to inanimate objects, you’re not going crazy. Sure, you’ll get a few strange looks, but you can rest easy in the fact that your “weird” quirks are completely normal and part of what make you who you are. Tell us in the comments below, do you talk to pets, plants and other items around your house?

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Facing up to ordinary things

5 unbelievable facts about the human body

This common quirk is a sign of intelligence