A Face or Not a Face? That is the Question!

"Objects that resemble faces are everywhere. Whether it's New Hampshire's erstwhile granite 'Old Man of the Mountain,'' or Jesus's face on a tortilla, our brains are adept at locating images that look like faces. However, the normal human brain is almost never fooled into thinking such objects actually are human faces," says MedicalNewsToday. "A new study from...[MIT] reveals the brain activity that underlies our ability to make that distinction. On the left side of the brain, the fusiform gyrus - an area long associated with face recognition - carefully calculates how "facelike" an image is. The right fusiform gyrus then appears to use that information to make a quick, categorical decision of whether the object is, indeed, a face." Read more.