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of recognition, the many neurons fire together, creating the single image of the red square that
we experience (Rodriguez et al., 1999). [3]
Figure 4.13 The Necker Cube
The Necker cube is an example of how the visual system creates perceptions out of sensations. We do not see a series
of lines, but rather a cube. Which cube we see varies depending on the momentary outcome of perceptual processes
in the visual cortex.
Some feature detectors are tuned to selectively respond to particularly important objects, for
instance, faces, smiles, and other parts of the body (Downing, Jiang, Shuman, & Kanwisher,
2001; Haxby et al., 2001). [4] When researchers disrupted face recognition areas of the cortex
using the magnetic pulses of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), people were temporarily
unable to recognize faces, and yet they were still able to recognize houses (McKone, Kanwisher,
& Duchaine, 2007; Pitcher, Walsh, Yovel, & Duchaine, 2007). [5]