Face pareidolia (par-i-DOH-lee-a) is when we see faces in objects that do not actually have real faces. How is it that we can see an object come to life with a face? When the brain gets the message from the eyes with the information about what they are seeing, the message is sent to the occipital lobe, the part way in the back of the brain that deals with vision. When the message arrives in the occipital lobe, it is not yet organized into a face. Instead, the message is made up of information such as patterns of light and dark as well as edges. A process begins that is kind of like an assembly line that builds the face, where parts of the face are put together as it travels through the occipital lobe. As the assembly line finishes traveling through the occipital lobe, it carries the parts of the face that are being built to a different brain area, the temporal lobes, which are located behind the ears. In the temporal lobes, the information is put together into a complete picture, or the process of building the face is finished.

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