October 6, 2009 | 15 comments

Illusions: What's in a Face?

This is the ninth article in the Mind Matters series on the neuroscience behind visual illusions

By Susana Martinez-Conde and Stephen L. Macknik

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CLICK TO ENLARGE + Image courtesy Frits Bonjernoor

Coffee Face

Our face-detection neural machinery can be overloaded. There’s a man’s face hidden in this image. But before we spill the beans about its location, look around and see if you can find it yourself. It’s difficult! Don’t give up too quickly: finding the face may take you a few minutes the first time you look. But once you have seen it, you will always find it immediately in every subsequent search.

Given up? It’s in the lower left quadrant near the bottom edge, about one-third across the image from the left.

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