#8. Test your Brain with these 10 Optical Illusions

The brain has two hemi­spheres, each divid­ed into four lobes. Each lobe is respon­si­ble for dif­fer­ent func­tions. For instance the frontal cor­tex (in blue below) is respon­si­ble for deci­sion mak­ing and plan­ning; the tem­po­ral lobe (in green) for lan­guage and mem­o­ry; and the pari­etal lobe (in yel­low) for spa­tial skills. The occip­i­tal lobe (in red) is entire­ly devot­ed to vision: It is the place where opti­cal illu­sions happen.

How the visu­al sys­tem process­es shapes, col­ors, sizes, etc. has been researched for decades. One way to under­stand more about this sys­tem is to look at how we can trick it, that is, to look at how the brain reacts to opti­cal illusions.

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10 opti­cal illu­sions to com­bine fun and learn­ing about the visu­al sys­tem (answers and expla­na­tions at the end of the article)

We know you know there are “tricks” involved since these are illu­sions, but don’t try to be smarter than your brain: Just give them a try! 

1. Are the squares inside the blue and yel­low squares all the same color? 

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2. Are the hor­i­zon­tal lines straight or crooked? 

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3. Are the cir­cles sta­t­ic or moving?

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4. How many legs does this ele­phant have?

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5. Can you put the fish in the fishbowl?

Stare at the yel­low stripe in the mid­dle of the fish in the pic­ture below for about 10–20 sec. Then move your gaze to the fish bowl.

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» Keep read­ing to try the next 5 illusions