The fascinating case of the spinning girl

[airiefairie.livejournal.com]

We must have all come across this silhouette at some point. It is a fascinating illustration of the way the human brain processes visual information in order to create a visual model of the world. It is an optical illusion, a two-dimensional image that is simply shifting back and forth, but because our brains did not evolve to interpret two-dimensional representations of the world but the actual three-dimensional world, we perceive it as spinning.

There is the erroneous notion that this image is a test to see if you use more of your right or left brain, which ignores the true source of the optical illusion.

By the way, while yo may find it hard or almost impossible to switch direction in your mind, a nice trick to suddenly change it is to try looking around the image, focusing on the shadow or some other part.

Here is some more info on the image.

Comments

[nairiporter.livejournal.com]

My head is spinning right now.