【TED/双语】Seeing things that aren't the...

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

想象一下，当你打开一袋薯片，却发现圣诞老人在看着你。

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

或者走过一个街角，却看到楼房上的笑容。

(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.

人们能在各种平凡的物品中看到面容，但这些不是真实的，它们是“人脸空想性错视”所导致的幻觉。

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

那么，为什么会发生这种情况，这种对现实的扭曲会到什么程度呢？

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

人是社会性动物，而阅读面孔是人们用来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.

即使瞥见一个人的脸，你能知道是否之前见过他们，他们当时的情绪，以及他们是否在关注你。

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

我们甚至使用面部特征进行关于这个人的可信度和暴力倾向的快速判断。

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

为了捕捉这些极重要的信息，人类进化地对类似面部的结构非常敏感。

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

每当我们看到一些事物，我们的脑子立刻开始反应辨认新的视觉刺激，基于我们的期望和原先的知识。

(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，人类已经进化出了许多脑部区域，使我们比其他视觉刺激更迅速地辨认它们。

(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.

虽然大脑识别大多数物体需要大约四分之秒，我们可以在十分之一秒内认出一张脸。

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

我们优先识别人脸是符合逻辑的。

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

但是大脑造影研究显示这些区域可能有些过于敏感，使得它们凭空认出人脸。

(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.

在一个研究中，被试者反映在提供的超过35%的纯随机图案中，看到人脸，尽管这些图像中其实什么都没有。

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

我们的大脑经常这样出错似乎令人担忧，

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

但是这些想象的面孔可能是进化优势的副作用。

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

因为准确快速地处理我们收到的所有视觉信息对大脑来说是巨大的负担，

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

这种超敏反应也许是恰当的捷径。

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

毕竟看到面孔的幻觉通常是无害的，但漏掉真的面孔会导致严重后果。

(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.

但若要超敏感反应利大于弊，我们的大脑需要迅速地辨别一张脸是真是假。

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

所以大脑能以多快的速度意识到它受欺骗了呢？

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

为了回答这个问题，研究人员用了一种叫做脑磁波仪(MEG)的大脑成像技术。

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

通过测量大脑中经过的电流产生的磁场，

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

这个技术可以让我们分析脑部活动的情况，在毫秒的级别。

(25)With this tool,

有了这个工具，