“Many of the newer illusions are takes on the classical versions as the technology has now opened the doors to revisit them,' she says. But if you continually vary this context, then the effect gets even stronger, she explains. on the Valentine Picture Illusion including hearts) or spinning effect (on the following illusion using round shapes and tricky colors). Just like the original, the illusion highlights that the brain always perceives the size of objects in the context of those that surround them. Moving Illusons are static images where you can see illusory motion due to color contrasts and shape position. “It’s like the Ebbinghaus effect on steroids,” says Martinez-Conde. Put on your headphones, close your eyes and be transported a million miles away to Sams houseHow To Make Your Own 3D Audio Illusion. This new version is dynamic, which makes the effect much stronger. The contest has a selfish motivation of sorts, she says: she wants to keep an eye out for interesting new illusions that will help her to study the brain.Ģ014’s winning entry is a novel take on the 19th Century Ebbinghaus Illusion. One of the judges is visual neuroscientist Susana Martinez-Conde from the Barrow Neurological Institute in Arizona. Vision researchers hold an annual competition, now in its 10th year, to find the best new illusions. What’s more, new illusions, and variants on old ones are appearing all the time.

While we know that different areas of the brain deal with colour, form, motion and texture, how the brain encodes and combines this information into a coherent picture remains poorly understood.

Brain games illusions