A shared mechanism for facial expression in human faces and face pareidolia.

ABSTRACT: Facial expressions are vital for social communication, yet the underlying mechanisms are still being discovered. Illusory faces perceived in objects (face pareidolia) are errors of face detection that share some neural mechanisms with human face processing. However, it is unknown whether expression in illusory faces engages the same mechanisms as human faces. Here, using a serial dependence paradigm, we investigated whether illusory and human faces share a common expression mechanism. First, we found that images of face pareidolia are reliably rated for expression, within and between observers, despite varying greatly in visual features. Second, they exhibit positive serial dependence for perceived facial expression, meaning an illusory face (happy or angry) is perceived as more similar in

SUBMITTER: Alais D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8261219 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature