Illusion Of White Moving Dot Divides The Internet

The internet is full of optical illusions - remember the dress? Well, check out the 'Troxler's fading' - either stare at the cross or focus on the light grey circle:

If you follow the light grey spot around the circle for 30 seconds to a minute, you will notice the other spots begin to turn green.

But if you stare at the cross in the middle for the exact same time, the spots around the circle will disappear.

The illusion - put together by Lenstore - is named after Paul Troxler, a Swiss physician and philosopher, who discovered that the brain will ignore visual scenes that do not change.

Troxler made the discovery in 1804 that focusing your vision on one element can make other elements fade or disappear.

The image was shared on Reddit last year and left users in shock about how their own vision can be lying.

Another optical illusion posted by Lenstore is illusory motion.

Lenstore.

This illusion is one where where the figure, in this case, the circles. appear to move even though the image is not moving.

Currently there is no definite explanation as to why this happens. Some scientists have argued that involuntary eye movements give the illusion that the objects you are staring at are moving. While others suggest that when motion detectors in your visual cortex get confused by changes in neurons this can give stationary images the illusion of movement.

Another optical illusion that is is currently making the rounds on Twitter, is one of a black and white circle white circle with a number hidden within it.

It's not just computer generated images that cause optical illusions, as we saw years ago with the dress. In recent months yet another dress went viral after creating some sort of optical illusion. Rather than the colours creating the illusion this time it was due to the fact the that the waist of the woman wearing it appears to completely disappear!

Although this one did leave some who bought the dress disappointed as it didn't quite work as well in person as it did on TikTok. Something that the creators of these online illusion won't have to worry about.

Topics: Optical Illusion

Isobel Pankhurst