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Face Recognition Needs 3 Areas Of Human Brain

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the two-more-than-quake dept.

sushant_bhatia_progr writes "Nature has an article on the recent discovery that face recognition in humans targets 3 areas of the human brain. Using mugshots of celebrities, Pia Rotshtein at University College London and her colleagues have shown that there are at least three separate areas for processing and recognising faces. One processes the physical features of the face, one decides whether or not the face is known, and a third retrieves information about that person, such as their name. Rothstein's team used a computer to create a series of images in which the countenance of film star Marilyn Monroe gradually morphed into that of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, or that of James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan transformed into current prime minister Tony Blair."

9 of 151 comments (clear)

  1. Gotta love it... by StevenHenderson · · Score: 4, Funny
    Using mugshots of celebrities...

    Gotta love having enough celebs with mugshots to run an entire research experiment. :)

    1. Re:Gotta love it... by WormholeFiend · · Score: 4, Funny

      Here's a sample

  2. The horror section. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Rothstein's team used a computer to create a series of images in which the countenance of film star Marilyn Monroe gradually morphed into that of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, or that of James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan transformed into current prime minister Tony Blair."

    And the fourth part of the brain. Recognizing the horror of it all.

    1. Re:The horror section. by mikerich · · Score: 4, Funny

      It's only fairly recently that the British population noticed that Tony Blair had morphed into Margaret Thatcher...

  3. Or maybe... by Zangief · · Score: 3, Funny

    We need 3 parts of the brain to recognize celebrities.

    -One to recognize the face and map it to its info.
    -One to categorize the info as hot girl or not.
    -One to ignore the not-hot-girls.

  4. Scary... by Martin+Spamer · · Score: 4, Funny


    Marilyn Monroe gradually morphed into that of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher

    Whoever though of that is one sick scary F***er!!!

  5. I dunno... by zenmojodaddy · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... it's pretty clear that Tony Blair has been morphing into Thatcher for years.

    Shame he doesn't have her balls, though.

  6. Brittany or Jessica by GillBates0 · · Score: 3, Funny
    And all the 3 areas of my brain still can't figure out if that's Brittany on Jessica Simpson lip synching on TV.

    Sometimes, "context" can be more telling than just the face. Brittany's are way bigger, IMHO.

    --
    An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
  7. Re:So how about... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    I heard they tried one using Michael Jackson morphing into Diana Ross, but no-one could tell the difference.