Designer of optical illusion explains worrying meaning depending on what you see

There is an optical illusion doing the rounds that has people arguing over what they see, and the designer has explained what it means.

No, it's not the black/blue/white/gold dress again, before you roll your eyes.

A post on X (formerly Twitter) has left people confused, as everyone seems to see different things.

At first glance it looks like a wormhole design, featuring purple, black and white pentagon shapes.

It's mostly a plum/purple colour, with one section in a darker red.

The caption of the viral post claims the creator of the illusion is a Japanese neurologist, and apparently the design stays still when you are feeling calm, but starts to look like it's moving if you are stressed or under pressure.

Maybe those seven coffees this morning weren't such a good idea...

One commenter fumed: “I’ll check the clock every hour, it’s spinning right now but it spins even when I’m not looking, it’s spinning below while I’m writing this, if it’s a joke it’s not funny,”

Another wrote: “IT WONT STOP MOVING WHY WONT IT STOP MOVI-.”

According to the BBC, the original post from 2018 reads: “This still image was created by Yamamoto, a Japanese neurology professor, and he told the instructions below. If it’s not moving, or just moving a little, you are healthy and have slept well. If it’s moving slowly, you are a bit stressed or tired. If it’s moving continuously, you are over-stressed and might have mental problems.”

Like many things on the internet though, it turns out to be fake.

It was in image created by a designer, Yurii Perepadia, from Oleksandriya in Ukraine.

He drew it in 2016 and was not happy when it started to go viral with the false meaning.

Bir Japon nörolog tarafından hazırlanan bu görüntü, sakin kaldığınızda hareketsiz duruyor ancak stres veya baskı hissettiğiniz anda hareket etmeye başlıyor! pic.twitter.com/087PJBe4TQ

— tanık (@tanik_tr) April 29, 2026

“I first saw this fake post on Facebook and then they began to appear everywhere,” he said.

“It annoyed me. After all, it was copyright infringement. So I wrote letters demanding the removal of the posts.”

More than a decade later it's still going strong, so he shared about it on Instagram.

“I drew this optical illusion in Adobe Illustrator on September 26, 2016. To create it, I used the effect of Akiyoshi Kitaoka. This is a white and black stroke on a coloured background… which sets in motion the focus of vision and it seems to a person that the details of the image are moving.”

"When people found out I was the author of this picture, it helped me bring out the truth," he said.

Needless to say, if you're worried about feeling stressed or your mental health you're probably better off speaking to a medical practitioner about it rather than a drawing on the internet.