Friday Illusion: Pattern causes temporary blindness

Caitlin Stier, video intern

Focus on the dot in the centre of this video as a pattern flashes around it. After about 30 seconds, a word appears on the screen. But take a look at the image again: chances are, you didn't see some of the letters.

The illusion, created by Isamu Motoyoshi of the Tokyo Institute of Technology and his team, occurs due to a phenomenon called adaptation-induced blindness where prolonged exposure to a high-contrast dynamic pattern affects the brightness of an image viewed afterwards.

In this new version of the illusion, the team was able to make the after-image completely invisible by gradually fading in the pattern. The image that appears in your peripheral vision is also of lower contrast. If the pattern was shown quickly at full contrast, your eyes would be able to detect it.

In this animation, solid letters are used, but the illusion also works with patterns. A pulsing gradient, for example, can induce blindness when a static version is presented afterwards, as long as the pattern and colours are introduced gradually.

You can experiment with other variations of adaptation-induced blindness by exploring Motoyoshi's online demonstrations.

If you enjoyed this illusion, watch how a moving background can induce a disappearing act.

Journal reference: Journal of Vision, DOI: 10.1167/10.2.16

Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/19d578ea/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Cblogs0Cnstv0C20A110C110Cfriday0Eillusion0Eflashing0Eos0Eblind0Eletter0Ereappearance0Bhtml0DDCMP0FOTC0Erss0Gnsref0Fonline0Enews/story01.htm

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