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| Subject: Three steps to recognising a face Thu Sep 29, 2011 2:45 am | |
| The brain goes through three separate stages to decide if it recognises a face, scientists claim.
A team from University College London says the first assesses a face's physical aspects.
The second decides if it is known or unknown. If it is a recognisable face, the third part puts a name to it.
The researchers say their study, published in Nature Neuroscience, could help those people with dementia who lose their ability to recognise faces.
How a 50s film star became an 80s prime minister
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The researchers say analysing how we respond to the stages of "morphing" a recognisable figure such as Margaret Thatcher into Marilyn Monroe gives clues as to how we process the facial features we see.
Their study found the brain tries to pin a single identity on a face, even if it looks like a mix of two people.
A face that was 60% Marilyn Monroe and 40% Margaret Thatcher will be identified as an older version of Marilyn Monroe.
But an image which is 40% Marilyn and 60% Maggie will be seen as the "sexier" side of Margaret Thatcher, say the researchers.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4086319.stm |
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