Stare at the red dot in the center of the figure for a minute or two. Before long, the green ring will disappear—it simply seems to fade into the white background. There are no tricks: This is a simple, static image file. The effect has been known for more than two centuries and is named for its discoverer, Ignaz Paul Vital Troxler (1780–1866), a Swiss physician and philosopher.
“Troxler fading” is actually related to what you experience when you get “dizzy”: You become so habituated to a phenomenon (spinning in a circle or seeing a green ring in your peripheral vision) that you stop noticing it’s there. Or, rather, you don’t realize that your perceptual system has begun actively ignoring it. It’s only when your circumstances change that you see what the phenomenon has done to your perceptual system. When you stop spinning, the world seems to continue, in reverse. When you look away from the green ring, you see a red ring in the same part of your visual field.
Full article over at the brilliant Seed magazine
Also see:
Great optical illusion, the circle really ‘pops’ out of existence. Cool.
You’re hacking my eyes.
I have MS which has affected my visual cortex as well as my optic nerve. This means that the ‘VR’ effect – where what you see is actually only a tiny, delayed proportion of the ‘image’ your brain displays can start operating for me with no warning. Its why I stopped driving – Cars or pedestrians could *literally* appear out of nowhere because while my brain had stopped recieving or processing the signal that something was there, my broader visual systems just mapped it over with what it thought should be there. Thus until something happens, like objects popping into view, you have no way of knowing you’ve had a sudden blindspot occur.
Freaky, huh?
Derren see my page, p.s this thing was cooool
Would not recommend older people and people with certain mental disabilities to stare too much at those pictures. Alcohol makes you dizzy too .. for many reasons … but you normally dont drink it too get dizzy .. ehehe ..
my twitter page i mean… ha
The green disappears, but you are still left with a dirty great big grey ring. The bigger you make the picture the fainter the ring goes.
that was cool, dot disappeared and the circle doubled. Have got this poster on the inside of my bathroom door with loads of circles that spin round. Very cool, especially when drunk!
Hey Derren, this is great, I can see how it happens as you stare at the red dot. The green circle didn’t disappear fully for me, but I could see breaks in the circle as it faded to white and then faded back in again. I could constantly see a pink circle around the outside of the green one and when I looked away the pink image was still burnt in and very visible.
In my case where the green circle does not completely disappear, I wonder if after looking at several other illusions, my mind and visual perception would become better conditioned to other illusions?
Great stuff, cheers Derren.
All the Best
Phill Mason
OMG! That is amazing, never seen that illusion before but I think it is going to keep me entertained for hours!
now my eyes hurt….
and… what am I doing here AGAIN??? I’m supposed to be at work…. *slaps wrists*
My father is red-green colour blind. I wonder how he will go when I show him this?
He’ll say wow the green ring has dissapeared! i’m colour blind and it worked fine for me!
I see it only disappear for a second. The ring comes back because i can’t concentrate long enough on the dot. So when it disappears, i automatically move my eyes a tiny bit. And then the ring pops up again.
I don’t even need to focus .. I already get that weird feeling in my frontal lobe .. (serious that is), but hey … I’m not normal (also serious .). Normal as in the standard classified once by some brains (male ofcourse) in psychology/psychiatry. I fool them though .. they never picked me .. when they encounter me. Perfectly normal they’d say.
Maybe .. just maybe .. it’s due to the illusions around us in human shapes all day long … There’s a lot going on there … huge effects on the brain and itself in that brain … the brain rollercoaster .. being seated in the back is therefor not that bad … the benefits are clear.
If I’m up, or very cold on the inside I can see to the optical illusions way better but this one .. and today …. Awfull … it’s as if you need glasses.
This isn’t fun to do when you have a lazy eye which makes your eyes hurt when you stare at things for too long!
Oh, I love these optical illusions! There’s one where you stare at a black & white picture for a few minutes and when you shut your eyes you can see the image of Jesus before you. The negative reverses once the picture in front of your eyes has gone. It’s brilliant but quite freaky.
And that hollow mask…..very strange that. It almost seems to start turning back the other way as the hollow mask is revealed.
LC x
Ohhhh my eyes hurt now!!! The ring disappeared alright, but the red dot in the middle started to have a blue glow around it?!?!?!?!?
I like the hollow mask illusion.. it’s ace !
Woah. That’s so weird.
Wow this made my eyes go funny. the external surroundings sort of turned white with greys lines and my eyes started watering. I was like in an alternate dimension. Also the green started wobbling and then fading. Amazing..
Ok now tryng to figure out why the circle didn’t vanish for me…..instead my eyes still saw the circle and the red dot…literally nothing happened and i stared at it for over 4 minutes until my eyes literally watered….maybe it’s the same reason why i can’t see magic eye pictures however i have yet to fathom what that reason is…..maybe i was bron weird and freaky….but hey…i like weird and freaky it’s different.
This kinda reminds me of the Patch Adams game too….where you hold four fingers up at yourself and try to see beyond the four fingers….look beyond it and you should see 8 fingers.
A simple illusion like this one, can put alot of things into perspective, how many people day by day see reality. If people are consentrated on one thing (one goal, w/e) you never can really see the whole picture. Accept everything life has to offer, look for positivity, and you will find positivity, don’t focus all your attention point by point in your life, be open to everything around you and you will find alot more from life.
Faded a bit, but didn’t disappear. But I have a banger of a headache from last night’s fizz and a sore tooth and a trapped nerve in my back, so I am just a ratty bitch today. Maybe if I got off my arse and did something that might help. Too hot… Probably the bloody early menopause on top of everything else… Grrrrrrr…
Didn’t disappear for me, but it was kind of wobbling strangely.