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Hi there. I'm Hank Green.
嗨，大家好！我是汉克·格林。
But now, I'm … Super Hank Green!
但是现在，我是汉克·格林超人！
And I have super powers like can't see very well and really like they might be giants.
我有超能力，比如视觉不佳，他们看起来像是巨人。
According to superhero comics,
按照超级英雄漫画来说，
simply putting on or taking off glasses is enough to completely transform your appearance.
简单地戴上或摘下眼镜就足以彻底改变你的外表。
Suddenly, mild-mannered Clark Kent is Superman!
突然，温文尔雅的克拉克·肯特成了超人！
And lots of people have claimed that's ridiculous,
很多人都说这很荒谬，
because a pair of glasses doesn't seem like enough to make someone unrecognizable.
因为一副眼镜似乎不足以让人认不出来。
But researchers have actually looked into this, because of course they have.
但是研究人员已经对此进行了研究，因为它们有这能力。
And it turns out that thanks to the way our brains process faces,
事实证明，多亏了我们大脑处理面部的方式，
glasses can be enough to keep you from recognizing someone, especially a stranger.
眼镜足以让你辨不出某人，尤其是陌生人。
Which, in a world full of photo IDs and eyewitness testimony, is kind of a big deal.
这在一个充斥着照片识别和目击者证词的世界里是件大事。
Faces are special to us humans because social interaction is key to our survival.
面部对我们人类来说很特殊，因为社会互动是我们生存的关键。
They're so special, in fact, that your brain has entire systems dedicated to recognizing them.
事实上，面部非常特别，以至于你的大脑有一套致力于识别它们的完整体系。
Some regions of your brain, like the occipital facial area,
有些大脑区域，比如枕面部区，
respond specifically to parts of the face, like the eyes or nose.
特别针对脸部的某些区域，如眼睛或鼻子有反应。
Meanwhile, your fusiform gyrus responds to the whole face.
与此同时，你的梭状回会对整个面部做出反应。
It tells your brain what's what,
它告诉你的大脑什么是什么。
so you know that you're looking at a face and not a piece of toast or whatever.
这样你就会知道自己在看一张脸，而不是一片烤面包之类的东西。
Other regions, like the superior temporal sulcus, respond to facial cues, emotional expressions,
其他大脑区域，比如颞上沟，对面部表情、情绪表达有反应，
for example, or where the eyes are looking.
例如，眼睛在看哪里。
But even so, a face isn't recognizable until you draw on your memories and experiences to contextualize it.
但即便如此，在你将记忆和经历与一张面孔融合之前，你还是无法辨认出它。
Which is why it can be harder to recognize a person when something changes.
这就是为什么当一个人发生变化时，你很难认出他。
You might not immediately recognize your boss at the grocery store, for example.
例如，你可能不会在杂货店马上认出你的老板。
Or Superman wearing glasses. No, really.
或者认出戴眼镜的超人。不，真是这样。
A 2016 study in the UK with 59 subjects found that
2016年，一项针对59名测试对象的英国研究发现
glasses made it harder to tell if two images were of the same person.
眼镜让人很难分辨两张照片上的人是否是同一个人。
If both had glasses, or both didn't have glasses,
如果两人都戴眼镜，或者两人都没有眼镜，
the participants could correctly tell if they were the same person about 80% of the time.
参与者在大约80%的时间里能正确判断他们是否是同一人。
But if one had glasses and the other didn't,
但是如果一个人戴眼镜，而另一个不戴，
they were only able to tell if they were the same person 74% of the time.
他们只能在74%的时间里判断他们是否是同一人。
While that's not a huge difference, it was still a statistically significant change,
虽然差别不大，但它在统计学上仍是个有意义的变化，
and it shows that glasses can affect how easily you identify someone, especially a stranger.
它表明，眼镜会影响你识人的难易程度，尤其是陌生人。
In addition to experiments like these,
除了这样的实验，
scientists often study how our brains recognize faces by looking at the outliers.
科学家们还经常通过观察离群值来研究我们大脑面部识别的方式。
Some people score way above normal on facial recognition tests.
有些人在面部识别测试中的得分高于正常水平。
They're called super recognizers, and they're really, really good at identifying faces,
他们被称为超级识别者，他们真得，真得非常擅长识别人脸，
even when they've been obscured or disguised, like with a hat or a mustache.
即使人们用帽子或胡子等物遮住或伪装了。
And I am not one of them.
我不是这类人。
And that might be because they focus more on the nose than other people do.
这可能是因为他们比其他人更关注鼻子。
Researchers think looking near the middle of the face, right around the nose,
研究人员认为，观察脸的中部，即鼻子周围，
may help them process the face all at once, rather than piece by piece.
可以帮助他们立刻处理面部，而不是一块一块地处理。
And looking at the face as a whole, rather than an assembly of eyes, nose, and mouth,
把脸看成一个整体，而不是眼睛、鼻子和嘴巴的集合，
seems to be an important part of actually recognizing who it is, rather than just seeing the face.
不仅仅是看脸，似乎对识人非常重要。
So if you want to recognize people better, just right at the nose!
所以，如果你想更好地识别人，就看鼻子！
There are people who are completely awful at recognizing faces as well.
也有一些人在识别人脸方面很糟糕。
It's not just an excuse that people use at parties, I swear.
我发誓，这不仅仅是人们在聚会上使用的借口。
In severe cases, it's called prosopagnosia, or "face blindness", and it's surprisingly common,
在严重案例中，它被称为人面失认症或者脸盲症，它非常常见，
studies suggest about 2% of people might have it to some extent.
研究表明，大约2%的人可能在某种程度上患有此症。
It can be caused by an injury or disease, but many cases are congenital:
它可能是由受伤或疾病引起的，但许多病例是先天性的：
in the immortal words of Lady Gaga, baby they were born that way.
按Lady Gaga的不朽名言来说，他们天生如此。
People with prosopagnosia tend to be bad at recognizing faces no matter what.
患有人面失认症的人无论如何都不善于识别面孔。
In congenital cases, it often seems to come from structural or signaling problems in the fusiform gyrus,
在先天性病例中，它似乎通常是梭状回的结构或信号问题，
the part of the brain that sees faces as a whole.
梭状回是把人脸看成整体的大脑区域。
In other words, they have trouble distinguishing faces as faces.
换句话说，他们很难区分人脸。
For example, most people can more easily recognize an upright face than an inverted face,
例如，大多数人都更容易认出正立面孔而不是倒立面孔，
but people with prosopagnosia are always bad at it, no matter the orientation.
但患有脸盲症的人不管它们的方向怎样，总是表现得很糟糕。
And they spend more time looking at the mouth area than the eyes or nose,
他们会花更多的时间观察嘴而不是眼睛或鼻子，
which might explain why they can't match the face to memory.
这可能解释了它们为什么不能与记忆相匹配。
They're not looking at the right areas, and maybe, they're not really seeing the whole face.
他们没有在看正确的区域，或许，他们没有看到整张脸。
Most of us are in between these extremes:
我们大多数人处于这两个极端之间：
okay at recognizing faces, especially ones you see all the time, but still not perfect.
我们擅长识别面部，特别是一直在看的脸，但达不到完美程度。
Which might not seem like a big deal until you think about all of the real world situations
这看起来不是什么大事，直到你想到了真实世界的所有情况，
where a person's ability to recognize faces can have some pretty serious consequences.
这里，人们识别面部的能力可能会产生一些非常严重的后果。
Like all the places we use photo IDs, or in eyewitness testimony.
比如我们使用照片识别的所有地方，或者目击者的证词。
On the other hand, people who are good at recognizing faces could be used to make things more secure.
另一方面，善于识别面孔的人可以被利用，让事情更安全。
For example, the London Police Force has their own research-confirmed team of super-recognizers
例如，伦敦警察队有他们自己的超级识别者研究确认小组，
who help identify suspects from video footage.
后者能帮助他们从录像中识别嫌疑人。
So, part of the solution to these security issues might be to
所以，这些安全问题的部分解决方法可能
include recognition testing in the hiring process for jobs where facial recognition is important.
包括在面部识别很重要的工作中，招聘时要进行识别测试。
We could also eventually let computers, which are constantly getting better at this, take over.
我们最终也可以让电脑在这方面不断进步，取而代之。
Because sure, our brains have special areas for processing faces,
因为尽管我们的大脑有处理面部的特殊区域，
but we're not as great at recognizing them as you might think.
但我们可能不如自己所想的那般擅长。
And ultimately, that's why Superman's disguise might actually be enough, despite all the flak it's received.
最后总结，这就是超人尽管受到猛烈抨击，但他们的伪装已经足够的原因。
As long as he can also hide all the bulging muscles, which I don't know how he manages that.
只要他还能藏起所有的膨胀肌肉就行，我不知道他是怎么做到的。
Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow Psych!
感谢您收看本期的心理科学秀！
If you're interested in learning more about the weird quirks of facial recognition,
如果你有兴趣了解更多关于面部识别的怪癖，
you might like our episode on how staring at your own face too long can make you turn you into Bloody Mary.
你可能喜欢我们那期“长时间盯着自己的脸会让你变成血腥玛丽吗”。
