Perception of the Foreign-Face Effect in Relation to Sensation Seeking

Abstract

Background: The strange-face effect is a visual illusion experienced when a subject looks at themselves in the mirror under poor lighting conditions for an extended period of time. Upon perceiving the effect, subjects report a deformation or change in their facial features and, in some cases, a complete dissociation from their own facial experience, describing it as “strange-face” perception.

Objective: The aim of this research is to add another perspective to the explanatory series of this visual illusion, the effect of sensation seeking, through which we hope to indirectly infer the underlying neural mechanisms of the illusion.

Method: The Mirror Gazed Task was conducted with 30 subjects. We tested the relationship between the Strange Face Questionnaire (SFQ) and the Sensation Seeking Scale (SSS) using Pearson correlation tests.

Results: The variability in the appearance of the strange-face effect was associated with two subscales of Sensory Experience-Seeking: a weak positive correlation with Experience-Seeking (ES) and a moderate positive correlation with Thrill and Adventure Seeking (TAS).

Conclusions: Based on the results, we conclude that the variability in the appearance of the visual illusion is related to the level of experience seeking. Experience seekers show a greater demand for stimuli from the environment in a semi-sensory deprivation setting, thus they may perceive multiple types of the foreign-face effect during the experiment. Furthermore, the practical experiences from our research open several other avenues for further interpretation of the effect and provide a basis for additional research.