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Learning to See
Published in Lisa Heschong, Visual Delight in Architecture, 2021
We are so tuned to look for faces that we even tend to see faces in random information, like wood grain or clouds. Indeed, neurologists have discovered that there is one area of the brain, referred to as the fusiform face area, or FFA, that is highly specialized in differentiating between human faces. Interestingly, it has been shown that experts also utilize the FFA in making subtle distinctions between visual categories of some other objects, like automobile vintages or Chinese characters. Research has also shown that this ability is not unique to humans: sheep, horses, and birds have been shown to use similar abilities to differentiate between members of their own species, and human faces too!
Beyond the neural correlates of consciousness: using brain stimulation to elucidate causal mechanisms underlying conscious states and contents
Published in Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 2021
Corinne A. Bareham, Matt Oxner, Tim Gastrell, David Carmel
On the other hand, fMRI findings in humans have shown a correlation between activity in primary visual cortex and the current dominant percept (Polonsky et al. 2000; Tong and Engel 2001). Furthermore, activity in temporal-lobe regions that are specifically sensitive to face and house images fluctuates in a time-locked manner to the dominance of their preferred stimuli in rivalry: activity in the fusiform face area (FFA) rises when a face is dominant and falls when it is suppressed, and activity in the parahippocampal place area (PPA) rises when a house is dominant and falls when it is suppressed. This activity is similar to that observed during physically alternating stimulus presentations, indicating the competition between stimuli is resolved at a lower level (Tong et al. 1998).