"Pareidolia-McGurk" First a short didactic rant and then a little contest.

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¡Hello!

The human brain is genetically and structurally interconnected (Hardwired) to recognize faces much easier than many other objects, according to a previously established storage scheme and model or mental map (Stigma) stored in our brains.

Therefore, when a face does not look like it should, we use our mental models already stored in our brains of what we know as a face and then our 'mind' tries to fill in the rest. Yeah, notice the emphasis on the word 'mind' in the previous sentence.

The brain then fights to extract the information in the same order and sequence stored in this mental model (Stigma) and our eyes fight with our 'mind' trying to decipher this odd, peculiar and untypical face. This struggle is precisely what produces the disturbance that you are experiencing when looking at this image above.

Alright! let's finish this first segment of the didactic diatribe with two new terms and concepts through an audiovisual summary:

"Stigma & Homunculus"

But hey! before completely abandon the subject, let's throw also some other useful terms and concepts of the Face Processing stuff that happens in our brains and the parts of it that are activated to carry out the reconnaissance.

Like by instance:

  • The Inferotemporal Cortex.
  • The Fusiform Face Area.
  • The Occipital Face Area.
  • The Superior Temporal Sulcus.

"Another Curious Effect"

Okay, I guess this first segment of the didactic diatribe has already been more or less clear. So, let's continue with the second part of this short rant before we jump right into the little contest. Oh yeah, now you want to go directly to the contest, eh? ¡You rascal! Well, have a little patience and learn a bit more about all this that I am teaching you right now. Because otherwise you will not have any opportunity to understand what the contest is about and much less win it.

The second segment of the rant:

I insist that there are only white dots at the intersections of this picture below... but of course, we always could also disagree.

¿White or Black?

Optical Illusions

It is not at all uncommon to find people to whom many events in their immediate surroundings go totally unnoticed. I guess this happens because, in general, many people don't usually pay too much attention to 'everything' that happens around them. C'mon! ...to whom I'm kidding? Actually, I think most people don't even pay "enough" attention to what's going on around them. But yeah, let's keep reading.

It is obvious that our brains are being bombarded daily, every minute and every second with a multitude and infinity of all kinds of sensory stimuli through the inputs of each one of our six known and main senses that although our brain always registers them, the vast majority of them are not consciously stored in the parts of the brain from which they can be easily retrieved in a conscious manner again.

But they are definitely all there. The records and data of all these daily perceptions, sensations, hunches and conscious, subconscious and unconscious stimuli generated by our six senses can be found stored there. Perhaps some of these data and records went through the hippocampus and were stored directly into the amygdala without going through or making true connections to the other neural networks in our brain culminating in the cerebellum or the temporal lobe.

Which in other words would mean, without triggering the synaptic plasticity system and therefore without firing the electrical signals that establish new connections between them to create new synapses. Therefore, let's say there were no conscious "internal" witnesses of how it all happened. But though, all the data is in there.

«-Short-term vs Long-term Memory-»

Oh boy! but now I suspect that I have already gone overboard with the length and density of the diatribe. And this post seems like it has already become too long.

I guess it's just an occupational hazard that comes with the territory when we get excited writing about things that enlighten people and we want them to get a good grasp of all the concepts before entering and participating in a contest.

And I'm afraid that's exactly what has happened to me today. Unintentionally and probably wanting without wanting it. So, I think it will be better and more convenient to leave the contest post with its description, illustrations, details and rules for later today or tomorrow; Tuesday, depending on the geographical zone where you are. So that this one today does not become very long, tiring and tedious.

Because as many of you here already know, my contests don't tend to be too easy to solve. And they usually require of a fair heap of descriptions, illustrations and explanations about what exactly the contest consists of. Especially this one that is going to deal with phenomena that occur in the brain, the hippocampus, the cerebellum, the frontal lobes, the amygdala and the basal ganglia among some others. Since it has to do with the Pareidolia and the McGurk effect, you know?

And therefore, elaborating and developing the article of the contest in an intelligible and coherent way, evidently is going to demand a generous amount of posting space. Which if I add it here now, I'm afraid it will lead you to resign participating in it beforehand for having overwhelmed you with too much content unnecessarily.

So, by now rest and just be patient. That the wait will have been worth it. And you can even think that you will have a comparative advantage over your potential competitors in the contest, since many of them will not have read and digested this post before, like you. And surely they will want to participate immediately after finish reading the article of the contest without being as prepared as you who have already understood everything very well.

In any case, it's not that many people have participated, participate or will participate in my usually strange and difficult contests. But if you've read this post this far, I guarantee your chances of winning it will be exponential in addition to the potentially new and possible useful knowledge you've gained by consuming the full tirade in this post today. So yeah, always expose your brain to new challenges and keep your memory intact for the rest of your life. I'll wait for you in the next post with the details and rules of the contest. So... Cya later!!

Leave a comment. Share your experiences and feedback. ¡Be part of the conversation!

«««-$-»»»

"Follows, Comments, Rehives & Upvotes will be highly appreciated"

Cranky Gandalf

Cheers!



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