Scientists recreated distorted faces seen by a patient with a neurological disorder

The faces that the patient saw

The Lancet Medical Journal

With the help of computer technology, scientists recreated the distorted faces seen by 59-year-old Viktor Sharra, who suffered from prosopometamorphopsia – a rare neurological disease in which the visual perception.

Patients with this disorder see faces as distorted in shape, texture, position, or color. writes Sky News.

Prosopometamorphopsia can occur as a result of head trauma, cerebral infarction, epilepsy, migraines, and hallucinations. The disorder can also occur without detectable structural changes in the brain.

When Victor Sharra woke up one day in November 2020, he was afraid that he had entered some kind of “demonic world”.

The man looked at the faces of people who seemed to him to be “demonic”, with ears, noses and mouths pulled back, with deep wrinkles on the forehead, cheeks and chin.

“You can’t imagine how scary it was.” – said 59-year-old Viktor.

In the course of the study, the results of which published in the scientific journal The Lancet, scientists found that faces were distorted in real life. Instead, they looked fine on screen or paper.

So the researchers decided to reproduce these distortions in the form of images thanks to computer simulation.

“By observing a distorted face in real life and a photo on a computer screen that was perceived as undistorted, it provided real-time feedback on the differences between the two.

We then used computer image editing technology to change each photo to match his personal perception.”– the authors of the study said.

Scientists say that such images have not been generated before, and the disease itself is understudied.

We used to toldwhy people see faces or patterns where there are none.