Your brain won't let you see...

luc

Ambassador
Ambassador
FOTCM Member
Found this one pretty interesting (hope it hasn't been posted before):

C0gBE4KWEAAdFLb.jpg


Someone explains the phenomenon like this:

In this optical illusion, the black dot in the center of your vision should always appear. But the black dots around it seem to appear and disappear. That’s because humans have pretty bad peripheral vision. If you focus on a word in the center of this line you’ll probably see it clearly. But if you try to read the words at either end without moving your eyes, they most likely look blurry. As a result, the brain has to make its best guess about what’s most likely to be going on in the fuzzy periphery — and fill in the mental image accordingly.
_http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/12/12885574/optical-illusion-12-black-dots

In other words, our brain just auto-completes what it perceives as a pattern, even though we know what's going on - our consciousness can't override this 'pattern recognition' system! Or so I understand it.
 
Yes, the black dots appear only when i focus. I can't see the dot if i don't focus my vision, i can't see it with my peripheral vision.
Its an interesting illusion. :)
 
Mmh, I was amazed at first because I believed there were black dots on every intersections, but there's not. I let you find out the "black dots pattern" :P.
 
I wish I could come up with something like that for my cat, so he can run around chasing the black dot indefinitely :lol:

Here's a favorite of mine, which consciousness CAN override! May be tricky at first though. It's called the spinning ballerina illusion, which presents a series of images at our threshold of movement detection, if i remember correctly.
_https://youtu.be/2RSsoTJA6cA
 
seems like the brain or the eyes do a better job horizontally than vertically, because i can see the secret dots to the left and right but not the ones above and below, even if i use only one eye.
reminds me of what i once saw or read about goats and similar animals. their eye's slit is always vertical to the horizon independent of the angle of the head (no matter if their head is up while looking or if its down while eating). so they are able to scan the horizon for predators (and they don't have enemies coming from above). i found that interesting.

i think its not the eyes fault or because it's 'blurry'. if you put three cups on a table and look at the one in the middle you will perceive the others pretty well. but in that picture the other dots are 'overwritten' as irrelevant by the dominant line pattern. since the dots have a different interval they are not considered part of the pattern.
 
Konstantin said:
Yes, the black dots appear only when i focus. I can't see the dot if i don't focus my vision, i can't see it with my peripheral vision.
Its an interesting illusion. :)

However one of my FB friend changed the grey lines for yellow lines and he was able to see the 12 dots. Very interesting!

15977575_10210179754383211_1159394786105794794_n.jpg
 
Gandalf said:
Konstantin said:
Yes, the black dots appear only when i focus. I can't see the dot if i don't focus my vision, i can't see it with my peripheral vision.
Its an interesting illusion. :)

However one of my FB friend changed the grey lines for yellow lines and he was able to see the 12 dots. Very interesting!

15977575_10210179754383211_1159394786105794794_n.jpg

Interesting! I think we can safely conclude, color is relevant in this optical illusion. If I had to guess why, I would have to say, it's much easier for our brains to merge the dots when the colors of the dots, and lines are fairly similar. On the other hand, our brain cannot do the same if the color pallet is so different, e.i. Lime green and black.
 
Back
Top Bottom