Skip to main content
Scientific American
  • Cart 0
  • Forgot password?Loading
    Not yet registered?
  • |Newsletters
Advanced Search
  • COVID
  • Health
  • Mind & Brain
  • Environment
  • Technology
  • Space & Physics
  • Video
  • Podcasts
  • Opinion
  • Store
  • Subscribe
  • Current Issue
  • Cart0
  • Sign In
  • Newsletters
      • Share
      • Latest

      Illusions: What's in a Face?

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

      • Share on Facebook
      • Share on Twitter
      • Share on Reddit
      • Share on LinkedIn
      • Share via Email
      • Print
      Illusions: What's in a Face?
      Slideshow (10) images
      View

      Illusions: What's in a Face?

        • Share
      • 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... Image courtesy Frits Bonjernoor
      • Mooney Faces Our nervous systems are hardwired to detect and process faces rapidly and efficiently, oftentimes with very scarce details available. The pictures in the accompanying slide are often referred to as Mooney faces, after cognitive psychologist Craig Mooney, who used similar images in his research on perception... Aaron Schurger, Princeton University
      • Tony Blair Illusion Vision scientist Stuart Anstis of the University of California, San Diego, created this illusion in 2005 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Thatcher illusion. Anstis reasoned that if face-neurons prefer right-side up face-features, they should also be selective for other evolutionarily stable aspects of faces... Stuart Anstis
      • Margaret Thatcher Illusion This illusion by Peter Thompson of York University (UK) was a critical discovery in our understanding of face perception. When the illusion was discovered in 1980, scientists already knew that faces were difficult to recognize upside-down... Peter Thompson/University of York
      • Advertisement
      • The Da Vinci Code of Perception Mona Lisa's smile can be explained by the fact that images are blurred in the periphery of our vision, and her smile is only seen when blurred. Livingstone solved this mystery by simulating how the visual system sees Mona Lisa’ smile in the far periphery, the near periphery, and the center of our gaze (panels left to right)... Margaret Livingstone, Harvard Medical School
      • Mona Lisa Smile Mona Lisa’s captivating smile is perhaps the most renowned art mystery of all time. Margaret Livingstone, a neurobiologist at Harvard Medical School, showed that Mona Lisa’s smile appears and disappears due to different visual processes used by the brain to perceive information in the center versus the periphery of our vision...
      • Happy Pouting Hybrid effects can be also created with realistic photos, as in this image by Oliva and Antonio Torralba at MIT. The three women look sad at close range, but happy when observed from far away... Aude Oliva and Antonio Torralba, MIT
      • Dr. Angry and Mr. Calm MIT vision scientist Aude Oliva and University of Glasgow researcher Philippe Schyns created this illusion by producing hybrids of two images.  The left picture shows Dr. Angry, and the picture on the right Mr... Aude Oliva, MIT and Philippe Schyns, University of Glasgow
      • Advertisement
      • Yang’s Iris Illusion This illusion, by vision scientists Jisien Yang and Adrian Schwaninger, was a TOP 10 finalist in the 2008 Best Visual Illusion of the Year Contest. It shows that context, such as the shape of the eyelids and face, affects the apparent distance between the irises... Jisien Yang & Adrian schwaninger (University of Zurich)
      • The Illusion of Sex The Illusion of Sex, by Harvard psychologist Richard Russell, won Third Prize at the 2009 Best Visual Illusion of the Year Contest. The two side-by-side faces are perceived as male (right) and female (left)... Richard Russell/Gettysburg College
      • Previous
      • Next
      of
      • View all
      • Link copied!
      • Coffee Face
      • Mooney Faces
      • Tony Blair Illusion
      • Margaret Thatcher Illusion
      • The Da Vinci Code of Perception
      • Mona Lisa Smile
      • Happy Pouting
      • Dr. Angry and Mr. Calm
      • Yang’s Iris Illusion
      • The Illusion of Sex
      Advertisement
      Advertisement

      Newsletter

      Get smart. Sign up for our email newsletter.

      Sign Up

      Support Science Journalism

      Discover world-changing science. Explore our digital archive back to 1845, including articles by more than 150 Nobel Prize winners.

      Subscribe Now!Support Science Journalism

      Follow us

      • instagram
      • soundcloud
      • youtube
      • twitter
      • facebook
      • rss

      Scientific american arabic

      العربية
      • Return & Refund Policy
      • About
      • Press Room
      • FAQs
      • Contact Us
      • Site Map
      • Advertise
      • SA Custom Media
      • Terms of Use
      • Privacy Policy
      • California Consumer Privacy Statement
      • Use of cookies/Do not sell my data
      • International Editions
      Scientific American is part of Springer Nature, which owns or has commercial relations with thousands of scientific publications (many of them can be found at www.springernature.com/us). Scientific American maintains a strict policy of editorial independence in reporting developments in science to our readers.

      © 2023 Scientific American, a Division of Springer Nature America, Inc.

      All Rights Reserved.

      Scroll To Top

      Support science journalism.

      Scientific American paper issue and on tablet

      Thanks for reading Scientific American. Knowledge awaits.

      Already a subscriber? Sign in.

      Thanks for reading Scientific American. Create your free account or Sign in to continue.

      Create Account

      See Subscription Options

      Continue reading with a Scientific American subscription.

      You may cancel at any time.

      Sign in.