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November 21, 2010

"Enigma"

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From an article in yesterday's Wall Street Journal: "In 'Enigma' [above], an image that was first created in 1981, the pattern is static but it seems to be moving. For decades, scientists weren't sure whether this illusion of motion starts in the eyes or the brain. A 2008 experiment by Dr. [Susana] Martinez-Conde, Dr. [Stephen L.] Macknik and their collaborators at Barrow [Neurological Institute in Phoenix] found that it starts in the eyes."

"The authors asked subjects to say when the motion sped up or slowed down as they looked at the image; at the same time, the subjects' eye movements were being recorded. Before the subjects reported periods of faster motion, their rate of microsaccades—tiny eye movements that occur any time when we're looking at an object—increased. Our eyes are constantly moving, making the pattern look like it's moving."

November 21, 2010 at 12:01 PM | Permalink


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Comments

The rings appear to pulse....I'd anticipate that is shifting my point of focus.

Posted by: 6.02*10^23 | Nov 21, 2010 12:16:05 PM

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