Face pareidolia minimally engages macaque face selective neurons.

ABSTRACT: The macaque cerebral cortex contains concentrations of neurons that prefer faces over inanimate objects. Although these so-called face patches are thought to be specialized for the analysis of facial signals, their exact tuning properties remain unclear. For example, what happens when an object by chance resembles a face? Everyday objects can sometimes, through the accidental positioning of their internal components, appear as faces. This phenomenon is known as face pareidolia. Behavioral experiments have suggested that macaques, like humans, perceive illusory faces in such objects. However, it is an open question whether such stimuli would naturally stimulate neurons residing in cortical face patches. To address this question, we recorded single unit activity from four fMRI-defined face-s

SUBMITTER: Koyano KW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11781954 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature