Space Aliens: The 'Mother' Of All Hallucinations?

People whoclaim to have been abducted by space aliens seem to invariably describe a verysimilar picture. Space aliens are described as having large heads, big eyes,gray skin, smooth features and small mouths.

Psychologist FrederickMalmstrom, currently a visiting scholar at the U.S. Air Force Academy, believesthat these 'visions' of space aliens are actually the image of the prototypicalfemale face that is hardwired into every baby human's brain. When Malmstromaltered a picture of a woman in a way consistent with the characteristics of anewborn's vision (astigmatism and a shallow focal plane), the result lookedvery much like a big-eyed alien.

(This Science Fiction inthe News story used with permission from Technovelgy.com - where science meets fiction.)

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Technovelgy Editor

Bill Christensen is the founder and editor of Technovelgy, a website dedicated to cataloguing  the inventions, technology and ideas of science fiction writers. Bill is a dedicated reader of science fiction with a passion about science and the history of ideas. For 10 years, he worked as writer creating technical documentation for large companies such as Ford, Unisys and Northern Telecom and currently works to found and maintain large websites. You can see Bill's latest project on Twitter.