The Thatcher Effect: The Hideous Illusion You Didn't Even Notice

The Thatcher effect tells us a lot about how we, and other animals, process faces. Thatcherize yourself: http://thatchereffect.com/ Further reading: Thompson, P. (1980). Margaret Thatcher: a new illusion. Perception, 38, (6). 483-484. Adachi Ikuma, Chou Dina P., Hampton Robert R. Thatcher Effect in Monkeys Demonstrates Conservation of Face Perception across Primates, Current Biology 2009, 19, 1270–1273. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2009.05.067 The Thatcher illusion reveals orientation dependence in brain regions involved in processing facial expressions. Psalta, L., Young, A. W., Thompson, P., and Andrews, T. J. (2014). Psychol. Sci. 25, 128–136. Rezlescu C and Susilo T (2014) What can the Thatcher illusion tell us about face processing in the brain? Commentary on Psalta, Young, Thompson, and Andrews (2014). Front. Hum. Neurosci. 8:289. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2014.00289 Milius, S. (2012), Face smarts: Humans aren't the only animals who possess special skills with mugs. Science News, 182: 20-23. https://doi.org/10.1002/scin.5591820726 Symons, L. A. Roberts, B. W. (2006). Configural and featural processing of human and animal faces: Thatcherization, spatial distortion and inversion. Journal of Vision, 6(6):437, 437a, http://journalofvision.org/6/6/437/, doi:10.1167/6.6.437 Nakata, R., & Osada, Y. (2012). The thatcher illusion in squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus). Animal Cognition, 15(4), 517–523. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-012-04... Dahl, C. D., Logothetis, N. K., Bülthoff, H. H., & Wallraven, C. (2010). The Thatcher illusion in humans and monkeys. Proceedings: Biological Sciences, 277(1696), 2973–2981. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27862406