Electric Brain Stimulation Warps Your Perception of Faces [Video]
Distorted Face Portrait of Picasso by Juan Gris. Google Art Project/Wikimedia CommonsA new study uncovers the two nerve centers responsible for face recognition--and the lack thereof. Two nerve clusters in the brain are crucial for perceiving faces, a finding that could help treat people who suffer from face blindness and that could inform why some people have such good facial recognition. Like many other neurological studies, the research team was able to benefit from a patient's desperate measures to treat his debilitating seizures. It wasn't quite the man who mistook his wife for a hat--more a man who mistook his doctor for some other guy. Ron Blackwell of Santa Clara, Calif., was at Stanford's medical school for treatment when this study was performed. Researchers working with his doctors were able to stimulate his brain and totally distort his perception of faces. "You just turned into somebody else. Your face metamorphosed," he said,...