Optical Illusion Makes Twitter Users Believe in the Paranormal
Twitter user Will Kerslake posted Ninio’s optical illusion, which depicts 12 black dots that the human brain can’t see all at once. Kerslake suggests users try it for themselves.
Most users of the social network concluded that it was impossible to see 12 dots at once: the most you can see is three or four. Some tried alcohol to conquer the optical illusion, others asked the otherworldly forces for help: “My wife can see all 12 just fine. Is she a witch?” one of them asked.
Ninio’s illusion is a variation of Hermann’s grid, an optical illusion discovered by German physiologist Ludimar Hermann in 1870. Such illusions are possible because of the lateral inhibition in the retina: receptors in the receptive field work together, exciting and inhibiting the ganglion cell, which prevents the human eye from seeing the full picture or causes it to see something that does not exist.
