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<p>Several mechanisms, in particular top-down processing and pareidolia, underlie the illusory perception of contours and writing. We analyze how these illusions are catalyzed by the observation of objects that generate strong emotional involvement, using the low-contrast image on the Shroud of Turin as a primary case study. This study illustrates the factors that make perceptual illusions more likely when observing religious artifacts and underscores the necessity of scrutinizing the “ghost” features, such as inscriptions and contours of objects that appear after image contrast enhancement, through the lens of digital image processing and cognitive science. A review of the available data indicates that illusory effects are amplified by the brain’s predictive coding framework, where prior beliefs and emotional involvement act as cognitive priming that fill the informational void of degraded data. The analysis of the influence of top-down processing, pareidolia, context, expectations, emotional involvement and emotional relevance highlights confirmation bias and advocates for methodologically rigorous approaches, such as automated pattern recognition, to decouple objective visual signal from individual interpretive fallacies.</p>

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The Mind’s Eye and the Digital Filter: Perceptual Bias in the Identification of Putative Features in Religious Relics

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年3月23日

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  • Paolo Di Lazzaro

摘要

Several mechanisms, in particular top-down processing and pareidolia, underlie the illusory perception of contours and writing. We analyze how these illusions are catalyzed by the observation of objects that generate strong emotional involvement, using the low-contrast image on the Shroud of Turin as a primary case study. This study illustrates the factors that make perceptual illusions more likely when observing religious artifacts and underscores the necessity of scrutinizing the “ghost” features, such as inscriptions and contours of objects that appear after image contrast enhancement, through the lens of digital image processing and cognitive science. A review of the available data indicates that illusory effects are amplified by the brain’s predictive coding framework, where prior beliefs and emotional involvement act as cognitive priming that fill the informational void of degraded data. The analysis of the influence of top-down processing, pareidolia, context, expectations, emotional involvement and emotional relevance highlights confirmation bias and advocates for methodologically rigorous approaches, such as automated pattern recognition, to decouple objective visual signal from individual interpretive fallacies.