Scientists have figured out why our brains trick us into thinking that a stunt double is still the same character, and how we recognize our friends and relatives. A recent study has discovered what is called the continuity field, which is the mechanism in our brain that allows us to have a sense of stability while all the while living in an unstable and changing visual environment.

Scientists have figured out why our brains trick us into thinking that a stunt double is still the same character, and how we recognize our friends and relatives.

A new study further has tested the continuity field, a term given in past experiments to the mechanism in our brain that allows us to have a sense of visual stability while living in an unstable and changing environment.

The continuity field forces us into thinking we are seeing the same person or character such as in the case of stunt doubles.

The study had subjects look at a series of faces every six seconds, each one slightly different and then try to identify which faces matched.

According to the results of the study, most people expect to see the same face if it was shown to them in the span of ten seconds.

David Whitney, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley and senior author of the study is quoted as saying: “Our visual system loses sensitivity to stunt doubles in movies, but that's a small price to pay for perceiving our spouse's identity as stable.”

The same mechanism allows us to recognize facial features as belonging to a familiar face.