Researchers have pinpointed the brain mechanism by which we latch on to a particular face even when it changes. While it may seem as though our brain is tricking us into morphing, say, an actor with his stunt double, this “perceptual pull” is actually a survival mechanism — giving us a sense of stability, familiarity and continuity in what would otherwise be a visually chaotic world, researchers point out. “If we didn’t have this bias of seeing a face as the same from one moment to the next, our perception of people would be very confusing. For example, a friend or relative would look like a completely different person with each turn of the head or change in light and shade,” said Alina Liberman, a doctoral student in neuroscience at UC Berkeley and lead author of the study published October 2, 2014, in the journal, Current Biology. In searching for an exact match to a “target” face on a computer screen, study participants consistently identified a face that was not the target face, but a composite of the faces they had seen over the past few seconds.

Moreover, participants judged the match to be more similar to the target face than it really was. The results help explain how humans process visual information from moment to moment to stabilize their environment. “Our visual system loses sensitivity to stunt doubles in movies, but that’s a small price to pay for perceiving our spouse’s identity as stable,” said David Whitney,  a professor of psychology at UC Berkeley and senior author of the study. Previous research in Whitney’s lab established the existence of a “Continuity Field” in which we visually meld similar objects seen within a 15-second time frame. For example, that study helped explain why we miss movie-mistake jump cuts, such as Harry Potter’s T-shirt abruptly changing from a crewneck into a henley shirt in the Order of the Phoenix. This latest study builds on that by testing how a Continuity Field applies to our observation and recognition of faces, arguably one of the most important human social and perceptual functions, researchers said.

“Without the extraordinary ability to recognize faces, many social functions would be lost. Imagine picking up your child at school and not being able to recognize which kid is yours,” Whitney said. “Fortunately, this type of face blindness is rare. What is common, however, are changes in viewpoint, noise, blur, and lighting changes that could cause faces to appear very different from moment to moment. Our results suggest that the visual system is biased against such wavering perception in favor of continuity.” To test this phenomenon, study participants viewed dozens of faces that varied in similarity. Each six seconds, a “target face” flashed on the computer screen for less than a second, followed by a series of faces that morphed with each click of an arrow key from one to the next. Participants clicked through the faces until they found the one that most closely matched the “target face.” Time and again, the face they picked was a combination of the two most recently seen target faces.

“Regardless of whether study participants cycled through many faces until they found a match or quickly named which face they saw, perception of a face was always pulled towards face identities they saw within the last 10 seconds,” Liberman said. Sure Fit Stretch Dining Chair Covers Australia“Importantly, if the faces that participants recently saw all looked very distinct, the visual system did not merge these identities together, indicating that this perceptual pull does depend on the similarity of recently-seen faces.”Chocolate Sable Cocker Spaniel Puppies For Sale In a follow up experiment, the faces were viewed from different angles instead of frontal views to ensure that study participants were not latching on to a particular feature — say, bushy eyebrows or a distinct shadow across a cheekbone — but actually recognizing the entire visage.Hp Laptop Batteries Austin Tx

“Sequential faces that are somewhat similar will display a much more striking family resemblance than is actually present, simply because of this Continuity Field for faces,” Liberman said. >> Check out our books! Vintage wedding look book, Pregnancy calendar & Mandalas coloring book Eligible for FREE UK Delivery Details 12 used & new from Get £1 Off Amazon Video* Sold by All We Ever Look For and Fulfilled by Amazon. The Johnny Depp Collection : From Hell / Edward Scissorhands / Before Night Falls (3 Disc Box Set) [1991] [DVD]DetailsJohnny Depp Collection [DVD] Edward Scissorhands [1991] [DVD] From Hell - Single Disc Edition [2001] [DVD] The Lone Ranger [DVD] Johnny Depp Collection [DVD] Actors: Johnny Depp, Heather Graham, Robbie Coltrane, Ian Holm, Ian Richardson Directors: Allen Hughes, Tim Burton, Julian Schnabel, Albert Hughes Producers: John Kilik, Don Murphy, Jane Hamsher, Denise di Novi Format: Box set, PAL, Colour

Subtitles: Croatian, Czech, Danish, Finnish, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish, Turkish Subtitles For The Hearing Impaired: English Region: Region 2 (This DVD may not be viewable outside Europe. Read more about DVD formats.) Number of discs: 3 Studio: 20th Century Fox DVD Release Date: 13 Mar. 2006 Run Time: 449 minutes 106,416 in DVD & Blu-ray (See Top 100 in DVD & Blu-ray) in DVD & Blu-ray > Box Sets in DVD & Blu-ray > Drama Box set containing three movies starring Johnny Depp. In 'From Hell' (2001) Depp plays Inspector Abberline, the Victorian detective charged with catching Jack the Ripper. Despite the fact that he is struggling with an opium addiction and the ghosts of his dead wife and child, Abberline nevertheless quickly discovers that the Ripper is a man with an expert's knowledge of human anatomy and some kind of connection to the Freemasons. As his investigations continue, he meets prostitute Mary Kelly (Heather Graham) and following her leads discovers that the killings are connected to people in the highest reaches of British society;

but as he gets closer to revealing the culprit, both he and Mary find themselves in mortal danger. 'Edward Scissorhands' (1990) is a gothic love story from Tim Burton. When Avon lady Peg Boggs (Dianne Wiest) pays a call to the local castle, she discovers Edward (Depp) - a half-finished, mechanical boy with scissors for hands. She takes him home to her suburban neighbourhood, where his exotic appeal and prodigious topiary skills make him a celebrity. However, prejudice against the unfamiliar soon takes its toll on the shy misfit. Finally, 'Before Night Falls' (2000) is an Oscar-nominated biopic telling the story of Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas. Following Reinaldo's life from birth to death, it tells of his poverty-stricken childhood, his involvement in the overthrowal of the Batista regime, his discovery of Havana's gay subculture, his arrest, imprisonment, and attempts to escape, and finally his exile and death in New York City. Javier Bardem takes the role of Reinaldo, and Depp plays his jailor Lieutenant Victor.