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October 13, 2007

A Right-Brain/Left-Brain Illusion

What does it mean if you can see it moving in either direction, as you choose, which is how I see it? Via Marginal Revolution.

Posted by Robin Varghese at 05:33 PM | Permalink

Comments

No matter what I try, I cannot see the counter-clockwise thing. I guess I am in my right mind.

Posted by: Abbas Raza | Oct 13, 2007 5:45:35 PM

Robin - that means you are multi-brained, as am I.
Abbas - if you want to join the multi-brained, focus on the foot on the ground.

Posted by: Helmut | Oct 13, 2007 6:12:00 PM

Robin - that means you are multi-brained, as am I.
Abbas - if you want to join the multi-brained, focus on the foot on the ground.

Posted by: Helmut | Oct 13, 2007 6:12:08 PM

It seems to change every time I see it. The first time I looked, I could only see counter-clockwise motion. The second, I could switch them easily. Now I can only see clockwise motion.

Posted by: JR | Oct 13, 2007 6:35:00 PM

It seems to change every time I see it. The first time I looked, I could only see counter-clockwise motion. The second, I could switch them easily. Now I can only see clockwise motion.

Posted by: JR | Oct 13, 2007 6:35:36 PM

Well, I'm hopelessly left-brained, it seems, b/c I can't see how anyone could see it as anything but counterclockwise.

Now, what does it say about my brain that I noticed the resolution extended to the woman's nipples?

Posted by: Anderson | Oct 13, 2007 6:53:03 PM

Don't look for the girl to be turning either way the first time you try it -- think of her scissoring rather than gyrating. Then locate the space between her lowest foot and its shadow, and decide which way you want to see her turn. After you're done with that look away for about 10 seconds, making up your mind that the girl will be scissoring when you return your gaze to her. Again, find the space between her foot and its shadow, and start her turning the other way. The trick is to be prepared in your imagination for the result you seek.

It is actually very advanced to be able to keep your eyes on her and see her turning first one way, then the other. But you can do it by convincing yourself of the two-dimensional nature of the illusion, so that the figure-ground relationship (white background, black spinning figure) is flattened, and the white and black areas merely, if animatedly, interlock for the time it takes you to start things up the other way.

If you haven't read much about left brain/right brain organization, then don't read the list about it that accompanies the illusion before you try it out or you'll set ourself up to be organized in the way that is the most disappointing to you.

Posted by: Elatia Harris | Oct 13, 2007 7:35:42 PM

You can see it's a 2D image (the right leg bouncing left then right) if you use your awesome peripheral vision skills. Regardless, I have a migraine now. Robin, I hate you.

Posted by: Matt | Oct 13, 2007 7:40:33 PM

Like Robin, I can make the girl spin either way, pretty much at will. Elatia, please explain. Am I a flip-flopper?

Here is one more - this one is easier to switch around.

Posted by: Ruchira Paul | Oct 13, 2007 7:46:06 PM

Ruchira, this is actually a test not of neurological organization but of what kind of tolerance you have for Hillary as president. If you see the girl turning right, then left, then right again, then left, and so on, without feeling manipulated by the girl, without feeling queasy, and without wondering where the girl thinks she'll get the cred to broker peace in the Middle East, then after the first few minutes yet another illusion will be generated: the inaugural pantsuit will begin to appear on the body of the girl, and the gyrations you see will most easily be understood as a victory dance.

Posted by: Elatia Harris | Oct 13, 2007 8:31:41 PM

If clockwise, then you use more of the right side of the brain and vice versa.

Why?

Posted by: Sagredo | Oct 13, 2007 8:33:19 PM

Omigod, I flipped it.

Posted by: Anderson | Oct 13, 2007 8:54:16 PM

Despite my best efforts, I am not able to see the counter clockwise motion.. Guess I'm hopelessly right brained...

Posted by: Shivaram | Oct 14, 2007 2:03:35 AM

I saw it both ways, too. Kinda weird because initially I wasn;t TRYING and my brain just made the switch on its own...

Posted by: Jennifer Ouellette | Oct 14, 2007 2:14:23 AM

Elatia, if Hillary had a body like that, Bill might have made less polygamous use of the brain between his legs.
As for the illusion, I think this a matter of depth judgment, i e at what point do you see her as convex (legs towards you) or concave (legs away from you) I doubt if it's a left-right hemisphere issue at all.

Posted by: aguy109 | Oct 14, 2007 5:13:08 AM

The easiest way to flip it is to look aside while just keeping it at the very edge of your vision. Then, when you see it with the corner of your eye, all you perceive is a dark, barely identifiable image rotating, at which point you can easily get it to flip directions, just by imagining it rotating the other way.

Posted by: Nikolai Nikola | Oct 14, 2007 9:15:35 AM

As I've noted elsewhere, I've yet to see where this optical illusion is linked to an actual scientific study anywhere, so I would take this with a huge grain of salt.

Posted by: Craig | Oct 14, 2007 11:35:28 AM

There is a discussion on this illusion here...
http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2007/10/the_left_brain_right_brain_myt.php

I find this one pretty cool...
http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/Einstein_Potter.JPG

Posted by: John | Oct 14, 2007 1:26:35 PM

The larger Harry Potter here
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2181/1509444609_2917fcda6a_o.jpg

Posted by: John | Oct 14, 2007 1:28:32 PM

The larger Harry Potter here
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2181/1509444609_2917fcda6a_o.jpg

Posted by: John | Oct 14, 2007 1:28:48 PM

Well, this is actually amazing to finally have been defined as right-brained (better be, I guess, since I am supposedly an architect). I am especially amazed that it seems like I have to force myself if I want to see it any other way. At what point of development, I wonder, do we allow our brains to force us to see in the way that we now do???

Posted by: eric | Oct 14, 2007 2:38:42 PM

OK, RichardDawkins.net is going over this now, but they've got two twirling girls side by side -- typical Dawkinsian upping of the ante, as follows...

http://richarddawkins.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=26222&start=25&st=0&sk=t&sd=a#p445484

Posted by: Elatia Harris | Oct 14, 2007 2:53:57 PM

The multiple twirling is very nifty.

Try to get both of them going the same direction, flip it, and then get them going opposite directions, and then flip it.

Posted by: John | Oct 14, 2007 3:19:32 PM

Elatia, since the last viewing, I am now able to make the twirler whip from side to side without letting her complete the circle. And yes, that is happening (in unison) with Dawkins' duo also. I am probably going crazy, dreaming of a Gore candidacy.

Posted by: Ruchira | Oct 14, 2007 4:08:39 PM

I found that if I start by looking to the right then panning my vision onto it I see it rotating in one direction, and if I start on the left I get the other. That makes sense for a left/right brain based problem. Note I don't mean left eye and right eye but fields of vision.

Posted by: ACC | Oct 15, 2007 3:35:17 AM

Well the illusion shows me to be right brained unless I take my glasses off and then it reverses, but to me with a left dominant eye and all the pictorial info going straight to the right cortex it would follow.

Like the architect it would follow I am right brained, and it also ties in with Simon Baron Cohens theries (which I hate)

A psychologist also told me I probably have damage in the left hemisphere (the language region)

The qualities attributed to each side in the blurb are absolute tosh BTW.

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October 13, 2007

A Right-Brain/Left-Brain Illusion

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