Have you ever seen the face of Jesus in your porridge? The phenomenon of seeing faces in random materials is called pareidolia. Previous research (Hadjikhani, Nouchine et al, 2009) indicated that pareidolia evokes an early activation of an area of the brain the FFA (face fusiform area). This area is located on the inferior surface of the temporal lobe. This early activation also happens in normal face-processing. As the authors point out: "The relatively early activation of the FFA at 165 ms by the face-like objects suggests that the perception of these objects as faces is not a post-recognition cognitive re-interpretation process; rather, the face cues in the face-like objects are perceived early in the recognition process." Hadjikhani, Nouchine et al. “Early (M170) activation of face-specific cortex by face-like objects.” Neuroreport vol. 20,4 (2009): 403-7. doi:10.1097/WNR.0b013e328325a8e1
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