ScienceAugust 19, 2026
occipital
ok-SIP-ih-tul
Definition
Relating to the back part of the skull or the area of the brain located there, which is primarily responsible for visual processing.
Etymology
Derived from the Latin word 'occiput,' which is a combination of 'ob' meaning 'against' or 'at' and 'caput' meaning 'head'.
In the news
The article uses the term to identify the 'occipital face area' in the visual cortex, explaining that this specific brain region triggers our perception of faces in random objects.
The human brain is so desperate to find patterns that it will reliably see faces in clouds, hear words in static, and detect meaning in pure randomness, and there's a name for the glitch that makes it happen.
Read the full article ↗ScienceBlog.com