a part of the human visual system which might be specialized for facial recognition,

the experience of seeing meaningful patterns or connections in random or meaningless data.

a psychological phenomenon involving a vague and random stimulus (often an image or sound) being perceived as significant. Common examples include seeing images of animals or faces in clouds, the man in the moon or the Moon rabbit, and hearing hidden messages on records played in reverse.

domestic cats make subtle use of one of their most characteristic vocalisations – purring – to solicit food from their human hosts, apparently exploiting sensory biases that humans have for providing care. When humans were played purrs recorded while cats were actively seeking food at equal amplitude to purrs recorded in non-solicitation contexts, even individuals with no experience of owning cats judged the “solicitation” purrs to be more urgent and less pleasant. Embedded within the naturally low-pitched purr, we found a high frequency voiced component, reminiscent of a cry or meow, that was crucial in determining urgency and pleasantness ratings. Moreover, when we re-synthesised solicitation purrs to remove only the voiced component, paired presentations revealed that these purrs were perceived as being significantly less urgent. We discuss how the structure of solicitation purrs may be exploiting an inherent mammalian sensitivity to acoustic cues relevant in the context of nurturing offspring.

“the sneaking feeling one has that others are conspiring behind your back to help you” (opposite of paranoia)

People who had been exposed to inaccurate descriptions came up with associations that were far more original. Instead of saying that “blue” reminded them of “sky” they came up with “jazz” and “cherry pie”

In the early nineteen-sixties, two psychologists, David Palermo and James Jenkins, began amassing a huge table of word associations, the first thoughts that come to mind when people are asked to reflect on a particular word. (They interviewed more than forty-five hundred subjects.) Palermo and Jenkins soon discovered that the vast majority of these associations were utterly predictable. For instance, when people are asked to free-associate about the word %u201Cblue,%u201D the most likely first answer is %u201Cgreen,%u201D followed by %u201Csky%u201D and %u201Cocean.%u201D When asked to free-associate about %u201Cgreen,%u201D nearly everyone says %u201Cgrass.%u201D %u201CEven the most creative people are still going to come up with many mundane associations,%u201D Nemeth says.

The Prisoner’s Cinema is a phenomenon reported by prisoners confined to dark cells and by others kept in darkness, voluntarily or not, for long periods of time. […] The “cinema” consists of a “light show” of various colors that appear out of the darkness. The light has a form, but those that have seen it find it difficult to describe. Sometimes, the cinema lights resolve into human or other figures

For Kierkegaard […], anxiety/dread/angst is unfocused fear. Kierkegaard uses the example of a man standing on the edge of a tall building or cliff. When the man looks over the edge, he experiences a focused fear of falling, but at the same time, the man feels a terrifying impulse to throw himself intentionally off the edge. That experience is anxiety or dread because of our complete freedom to choose to either throw oneself off or to stay put. The mere fact that one has the possibility and freedom to do something, even the most terrifying of possibilities, triggers immense feelings of dread.

Translates literally as “call of the void”. The urge some people get to jump from high places when they encounter them, for example when close to the edge of cliffs.

when someone who has experienced a loss gets stuck in the grief process

Six studies from the 50’s through 70’s when re-examined with rigorous statistical methods show that a single dose of LSD is as effective as daily use of most modern medications currently prescribed.