This cool Scintillating Heart Illusion by Akiyoshi Kitaoka is a heart shaped version of the famous scintillating grid illusion. Every time you try to look at one of the darker hearts, it moves! For fun, try counting all the darker hearts!
If you are interested in learning how the Scintillating Heart Illusion works, scroll down to read more about it.
Table of Contents
- What is the Scintillating Heart Illusion ?
- How does the Scintillating Heart Illusion work?
- Some Similar Illusions
- Discovery of the Scintillating Heart Illusion
- References and Resources
What is the Scintillating Heart Illusion?
The Scintillating Heart Illusion is a version of the Scintillating Grid Illusion which is a type of visual illusion that creates the illusion of black dots appearing and disappearing at the intersections of a grid of white lines.
The illusion is created by drawing a grid of white lines on a black background, with small circles placed at the intersection of each line. When the viewer focuses on a single intersection of the grid, the black dots that appear at that intersection seem to disappear as the viewer’s gaze moves towards them. This creates the illusion of the dots appearing and disappearing in a scintillating pattern.
The Scintillating Heart Illusion is thought to occur due to the way that the brain processes visual information. Specifically, the illusion is believed to be caused by the interaction between the neurons in the retina of the eye and the visual processing centers in the brain.
The Scintillating Heart Illusion is similar to other visual illusions that rely on the misperception of spatial relationships and visual processing, such as the Hermann grid illusion and the Mach bands illusion. Like these other illusions, the Scintillating Grid Illusion demonstrates how our perception of visual information can be influenced by subtle cues and contextual information in the environment.
How does the Scintillating Heart Illusion Work?
The Scintillating Heart Illusion works by exploiting the way that the brain processes visual information. Specifically, the illusion relies on the way that the brain processes the contrast between the dark lines of the grid and the light spaces between them.
When we look at the Scintillating Heart Illusion, our brains try to make sense of the contrasting light and dark areas in the image. This leads to the activation of different types of neurons in the retina and the visual processing centers of the brain, which can create the illusion of black dots appearing and disappearing at the intersections of the grid.
The illusion is thought to occur due to a phenomenon called lateral inhibition, which is a process in which neurons in the retina and visual processing centers of the brain inhibit the activity of nearby neurons. This can create a contrast enhancement effect, where areas of high contrast in an image appear more pronounced.
In the case of the Scintillating Heart Illusion, the high-contrast intersection points of the grid cause nearby neurons to inhibit each other’s activity, creating a visual effect that makes it appear as if there are black dots appearing and disappearing at those points.
The Scintillating Heart Illusion is a fascinating example of how our brains can be tricked into perceiving something that is not actually present in the visual stimulus itself.
Some Similar Illusions
There are several similar illusions to the Scintillating Grid Illusion that rely on similar principles of visual processing and perception. Some examples include:
- The Hermann Grid Illusion: This illusion involves a grid of black squares on a white background. When you stare at the intersection points of the grid, gray blobs seem to appear in the white space between the squares.
- The Mach Bands Illusion: This illusion creates the impression of light and dark bands along the borders between areas of different brightness or color. The effect is thought to be caused by lateral inhibition in the retina and visual processing centers of the brain.
- The White’s Illusion: This illusion involves a checkerboard pattern with two gray squares on either side. Despite appearing to be different shades of gray, the squares are actually the same color. This illusion occurs because of the way the brain processes information about light and shadow.
These illusions, like the Scintillating Heart Illusion, demonstrate how our perception of visual information can be influenced by the contextual information in the environment and the way our brains process that information.
Discovery of the Scintillating Heart Illusion
The Scintillating Heart Illusion was created by Akiyoshi Kitaoka, a Japanese psychologist and visual perception expert who is known for his research on visual illusions and his creation of many famous optical illusions. He is a professor in the Department of Psychology at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, Japan.
The original Scintillating Grid Illusion was first described in 1994 by E. Lingelbach and R. Sekuler in a paper published in the journal Perception. However, the phenomenon has been known to researchers in the field of visual perception and psychology for many decades and is thought to be related to other well-known visual illusions, such as the Hermann Grid Illusion and Mach Bands Illusion.
References and Resources
Check out our complete list of illusions and this awesome Chromatic Vasarely Illusion and this cool Parallel Lines Illusion and awesome Tiger Tail Illusion and Expanding Contracting Illusion