Can You Figure Out How This Optical Illusion Works?

Japanese digital artist @jagarikin serves up the trippiest optical illusions on a regular basis. If you look closely at the circles above, you'll see that the black and white patterns move consistantly, and the circles themselves never move. But your eyes, or rather your brain, makes the circles go in the direction the arrow is pointing. Let's see that same illusion in a more colorful format.

Are the circles moving? Yes, the colors in them are going around and around. But the circles themselves aren't traveling relative to the background, that's just your brain at work once again. We've certainly embraced the symbolic meaning of an arrow, haven't we? But wait, what if that's not it at all?

Well, hooda thunket, the arrows have nothing to do with it. So what makes these circles appear to move? ScienceAlert clues us in. If you look closely, you'll see a very thin border on the outside and inside of each circle. It's this border that changes in contrast with the background and the rest of the circle, and therefore changes your perception. The border movement is not consistant, but is coordinated with the appearance of the arrows. Whoa! They go on to explain how this trick works on our brains. Still, understanding it doesn't make the effect go away. -via Damn Interesting


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