From ambiguous object to illusory faces: EEG decoding reveals a dynamic cascade of face pareidolia

Face pareidolia, perceiving faces in inanimate objects, provides a unique window into how the brain constructs perceptual meaning from ambiguous visual input. In this work, we investigated the neural dynamics of face pareidolia, testing the hypothesis that it emerges from a temporal cascade that integrates global (low spatial frequency, LSF) and local (high spatial frequency, HSF) visual information. With a pareidolia detection task, we combined event-related potentials (ERP), multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA), and representational similarity analysis (RSA) to map the evolving neural code for illusory face perception. Behaviorally, participants experienced pareidolia from both LSF and HSF stimuli, but the percept was strongest for broadband images containing both frequency bands. Electrophysiological results revealed a clear temporal progression. Early processing (<150 ms) was driven by low-level attributes, with distinct P100/N100 components and neural representations for LSF and HSF signals. A critical shift occurred around 145 ms, after which MVPA decoding could reliably distinguish between images perceived as faces and those that were not. Concurrently, RSA showed that the geometry of neural representations shifted to reflect participants’ subjective face-likeness ratings, rather than the initial physical properties of the stimuli. This transition to a higher-order, subjective evaluation was marked by a later N250 component, whose amplitude indexed the cognitive load of integrating the visual cues. Together, these findings demonstrate that face pareidolia is a dynamic neural cascade, from early sensory encoding to higher-order perceptual evaluation, driven by the integration of global configuration and local features of visual stimuli. Our results illuminate how the brain transforms ambiguous input into meaningful social perception, offering insight into the temporal dynamics of visual awareness.