(1)Imagine opening a bag of chips only to find Santa Claus looking back at you.

想象一下，當(dāng)你打開一袋薯片，卻發(fā)現(xiàn)圣誕老人在看著你。

(2)Or turning the corner to see a smile as wide as a building.

或者走過一個街角，卻看到樓房上的笑容。

(3)Humans see faces in all kinds of mundane objects,but these faces aren't real——they're illusions due to a phenomenon known as face pareidolia.

人們能在各種平凡的物品中看到面容，但這些不是真實(shí)的，它們是“人臉空想性錯視”所導(dǎo)致的幻覺。

(4)So why exactly does this happen,and how far can this distortion of reality go?

那么，為什么會發(fā)生這種情況，這種對現(xiàn)實(shí)的扭曲會到什么程度呢？

(5)Humans are social animals,and reading faces is an important part of our ability to understand each other.

人是社會性動物，而閱讀面孔是人們用來互相理解的重要能力。

(6)Even a glimpse of someone's face can help you determine if you've met them before,what mood they're in,and if they're paying attention to you.

即使瞥見一個人的臉，你能知道是否之前見過他們，他們當(dāng)時(shí)的情緒，以及他們是否在關(guān)注你。

(7)We even use facial features to make snap-judgments about a person's potential trustworthiness or aggression.

我們甚至使用面部特征進(jìn)行關(guān)于這個人的可信度和暴力傾向的快速判斷。

(8)To capture all this vital information,humans have evolved to be very sensitive to face-like structures.

為了捕捉這些極重要的信息，人類進(jìn)化地對類似面部的結(jié)構(gòu)非常敏感。

(9)Whenever we see something,our brain immediately starts working to identify the new visual stimuli based on our expectations and prior knowledge.

每當(dāng)我們看到一些事物，我們的腦子立刻開始反應(yīng)辨認(rèn)新的視覺刺激，基于我們的期望和原先的知識。

(10)And since faces are so important,humans have evolved several regions of the brain that enable us to identify them faster than other visual stimuli.

既然面部那么重要，人類已經(jīng)進(jìn)化出了許多腦部區(qū)域，使我們比其他視覺刺激更迅速地辨認(rèn)它們。

(11)Whereas recognizing most objects takes our brain around a quarter of a second,we can detect a face in just a tenth of a second.

雖然大腦識別大多數(shù)物體需要大約四分之秒，我們可以在十分之一秒內(nèi)認(rèn)出一張臉。

(12)It makes sense that we'd prioritize identifying faces over everything else.

我們優(yōu)先識別人臉是符合邏輯的。

(13)But brain imaging studies have revealed that regions may actually be too sensitive,leading them to find faces where they don't exist.

但是大腦造影研究顯示這些區(qū)域可能有些過于敏感，使得它們憑空認(rèn)出人臉。

(14)In one study,participants reported seeing illusory faces in over 35% of pure-noise images shown to them,despite the fact that nothing was there.

在一個研究中，被試者反映在提供的超過35%的純隨機(jī)圖案中，看到人臉，盡管這些圖像中其實(shí)什么都沒有。

(15)It might seem concerning that our brains can be so wrong so often,

我們的大腦經(jīng)常這樣出錯似乎令人擔(dān)憂，

(16)but these illusory faces might actually be a by product of something evolutionarily advantageous.

但是這些想象的面孔可能是進(jìn)化優(yōu)勢的副作用。

(17)Since processing all the visual input we encounter quickly and correctly is an enormous computational effort for the brain,

因?yàn)闇?zhǔn)確快速地處理我們收到的所有視覺信息對大腦來說是巨大的負(fù)擔(dān)，

(18)this kind of hypersensitivity might act as a useful shortcut.

這種超敏反應(yīng)也許是恰當(dāng)?shù)慕輳健?/p>

(19)After all,seeing illusory faces is usually harmless,while missing a real face can lead to serious issues.

畢竟看到面孔的幻覺通常是無害的，但漏掉真的面孔會導(dǎo)致嚴(yán)重后果。

(20)But for hypersensitivity to be more helpful than harmful,our brains also need to be quick at determining when a face is real and when it isn't.

但若要超敏感反應(yīng)利大于弊，我們的大腦需要迅速地辨別一張臉是真是假。

(21)So how fast can our brains tell when they've been duped?

所以大腦能以多快的速度意識到它受欺騙了呢？

(22)To answer this question,researchers used a form of brain imaging known as magnetoencephalography.

為了回答這個問題，研究人員用了一種叫做腦磁波儀(MEG)的大腦成像技術(shù)。

(23)By measuring the magnetic fields caused by electric currents in the brain,

通過測量大腦中經(jīng)過的電流產(chǎn)生的磁場，

(24)this technique allows us to track changes in brain activity at the scale of milliseconds.

這個技術(shù)可以讓我們分析腦部活動的情況，在毫秒的級別。

(25)With this tool,

有了這個工具，