What color DO YOU see? These strawberries aren’t really red – how mind-boggling optical illusion fools your BRAIN
From the cigar nestled in the brickwork to ‘The Dress’, many optical illusions have left viewers around the world baffled over the years.
But the latest illusion may be one of the most bizarre yet.
Dr. Dean Jacksona biologist and BBC presenter, has shared a strange illusion on TikTok that makes your brain think strawberries are red.
At the beginning of the video, Dr. Jackson seeing a photo of red strawberries on a white plate.
He then adds a cyan filter, before asking what color you think the strawberries are.
Although your first reaction is probably “red,” Dr. Jackson explains that the strawberries are actually gray now.
‘You still see the strawberries as red, don’t you? Well, there’s no red in that photo at all,” he said.
‘That’s not possible. Because red light does not pass through a cyan filter. It’s impossible.’
Dr. Dean Jackson, a biologist and BBC presenter, has shared a strange illusion on TikTok that makes your brain think strawberries are red
The strange optical illusion occurs because our brains become confused by what our eyes see.
The back of the human eye contains two types of photoreceptors that allow us to respond to light shining in.
While ‘rods’ are sensitive to movement, ‘cones’ are sensitive to light, each responding to a different color.
In Dr.’s video Jackson, the cyan filter only allows cyan-colored light to pass through, meaning everything else should appear gray.
But if our brain recognizes that strawberries are usually red, it can interpret the gray light as such.
“Because it’s the only experience you have with strawberries because they’re red, it fills in the details for you,” Dr. explained. Jackson out.
“But in reality, the strawberries in this photo are now gray.”
To prove this is the case, Dr. Jackson disguises the strawberries by placing strips around them.
This makes it clear that with the cyan filter added the strawberries are gray.
‘Please, there is no red in the picture at all! The strawberries were gray all the time,” he added.
Dr.’s video Jackson has been viewed more than 3.4 million times on TikTok, with several baffled viewers following the comments to discuss the illusion.
“This illusion blew my mind a few years ago,” one user wrote.
‘I still think it’s one of the best!’
Another added: ‘omg I saw the last strawberry turn gray in real time after the bars were added.’
And one person joked: ‘It makes me tired to think about things like this and know it’s wrong.’
WHAT IS THE CAFÉ WALL OPTICAL ILLUSION?
The optical illusion of a cafe wall was first described by Richard Gregory, professor of neuropsychology at the University of Bristol, in 1979.
When alternating columns of dark and light tiles are placed vertically out of alignment, they can create the illusion that the rows of horizontal lines taper at one end.
The effect depends on the presence of a visible gray mortar line between the tiles.
When alternating columns of dark and light tiles are placed vertically out of alignment, they can create the illusion that the rows of horizontal lines taper at one end. The effect depends on the presence of a visible gray mortar line between the tiles
The illusion was first observed when a member of Professor Gregory’s laboratory noticed an unusual visual effect created by the tile pattern on the wall of a cafe at the foot of St Michael’s Hill in Bristol.
The café, near the university, was tiled with alternating rows of black and white tiles, with visible mortar lines between them.
Diagonal lines are observed because of the way neurons in the brain interact with each other.
Different types of neurons respond to the perception of dark and light colors, and the placement of the dark and light tiles dims or brightens different parts of the grout lines in the retina.
Where there is a brightness contrast across the grout line, a small-scale asymmetry is created with half of the dark and light tiles moving towards each other, forming small wedges.
The cafe wall optical illusion was first described by Richard Gregory, professor of neuropsychology at the University of Bristol, in 1979. The unusual visual effect was noticed in the tile pattern on the wall of a nearby cafe. Both are shown in this image
These small wedges are then integrated into long wedges, with the brain interpreting the grout line as a sloping line.
Professor Gregory’s findings surrounding the cafe wall illusion were first published in a 1979 edition of the journal Perception.
The cafe wall illusion has helped neuropsychologists study the way visual information is processed by the brain.
The illusion has also been used in graphic design and art applications, as well as architectural applications.
The effect is also known as the Munsterberg illusion, as previously reported in 1897 by Hugo Munsterberg, who called it the ‘shifted chessboard figure’.
It is also called the “preschool pattern illusion” because it was often found in the weaving of preschoolers.
The illusion has been used in graphic design and art applications, as well as architectural applications, such as the Port 1010 building in the Docklands region of Melbourne, Australia