Spinning dance optical illusion

I’ve been obsessing over this optical illusion ever since I ran across it yesterday.

Is she spinning clockwise or counterclockwise? Or both…and how is that even possible? It’s a left-brain vs. right-brain test…which way she spins for you determines which side of your brain is more dominant. (Tip: if you’re having trouble getting her to switch directions, focus on a point a couple of inches below her feet…that seems to do it for me.)

Update: Neuralogica Blog debunked the left/right-brain explanation in this post.

This news article, like many others, ignores the true source of this optical illusion and instead claims it is a quick test to see if you use more of your right brain or left brain. This is utter nonsense, but the “right-brain/left brain” thing is in the public consciousness and won’t be going away anytime soon. Sure, we have two hemispheres that operate fine independently and have different abilities, but they are massively interconnected and work together as a seamless whole (providing you have never had surgery to cut your corpus callosum).

(via @danielpunkass)

• brain
• optical illusions