optical-illusions

If you’re a fruit fly, tease your mind with this optical illusion. Humans welcome too.

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Rotat­ing snake illu­sion. Cred­it: Akiyoshi Kitaoka

Please move your gaze around the image, rest­ing from time to time.

Then, fix your gaze at a point, and see what happens.

You will prob­a­bly first see ‘snakes’ rotat­ing, some clock­wise, oth­ers anti­clock­wise, and then stop. [Read more…] about If you’re a fruit fly, tease your mind with this opti­cal illu­sion. Humans wel­come too.

Update: 200 common prescription medications increase depression risk

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Dear read­er,

Time for Sharp­Brains e‑newsletter.

It’s been a busy month, once again bring­ing to the fore­front the lim­i­ta­tions of our cur­rent health­care sys­tem and, on the pos­i­tive side, the grow­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties to improve Brain Health and Men­tal Health for all, if we pay atten­tion to (and act on) lat­est research, think­ing and tools.

New research:

New thinking:

New tools:

 

Final­ly, we invite you to tease your mind with these four opti­cal illu­sions. Sur­pris­ing, aren’t they?

Have a great month of July,

 

The Sharp­Brains Team

Is your brain ready for Monday? Tease your mind with these four optical illusions

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A great way to learn more about our brains and minds is to look at how we can trick them–that is, to see how we react to brain teasers and visu­al illusions.

Below are four fun opti­cal illu­sions that let us learn­ about our visu­al system…ready?

(answers and expla­na­tions at the bottom)

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[Read more…] about Is your brain ready for Mon­day? Tease your mind with these four opti­cal illusions

Test your brain and mind with these nine classic optical Illusions

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Are the two orange cir­cles of the same size? 

One way to learn more about our brains and minds is to look at how we can trick them–that is, to see how we react to brain teasers and visu­al illusions.

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

Below are 9 opti­cal illu­sions that com­bine fun and learn­ing about our visu­al sys­tem. We know you know there is a trick since these are illu­sions… but don’t try to be smarter than your brain. Enjoy being surprised!

(You’ll find answers and expla­na­tions at the end of the article)

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[Read more…] about Test your brain and mind with these nine clas­sic opti­cal Illusions

Visual illusions to tease our brains and minds

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Café_wall_illusion.svg

Why Opti­cal Illu­sions Like These Make Your Brain Go Hay­wire (Wired):

“Uni­ver­si­ty of Bris­tol researchers dis­cov­ered this illu­sion in the ear­ly 1970s while look­ing at the tiled wall of a café. Hence the name, Café Wall Illu­sion. The gray lines in between the rows of white and black squares seem to con­verge, but they are actu­al­ly par­al­lel. Your brain, over­whelmed by the intense and close­ly-spaced black-and-white con­trasts, sees the gray lines as part of the tile either above or below it. The lines end up appear­ing high­er on alter­nat­ing sides, cre­at­ing the trape­zoidal illusion.”

More visu­al illu­sions and brain teasers:

Brain Teasers and Games, for Kids and Adults

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In case you missed them, here you have a few recent brain teasers and games. t is always good to stim­u­late our minds and to learn a bit about how our brains work.

You can find many more brain teasers and games, for kids and adults, by vis­it­ing the Top 50 Brain Teasers and Games that our read­ers have enjoyed the most. Enjoy!