If you thought Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter was weird, wait until you see this bizarre optical illusion.
The billionaire Tesla founder has apparently taken over the social media app, but you might find this photo of Musk more arresting.
2
Can you find what’s wrong with this inverted image of Elon Musk?
At first glance, you might not see anything wrong with the happy crunch, except that it’s backwards.
However, if you look closely, you will notice that his features are not quite correct.
Flip the image over and you’ll notice that the South African’s eyes and mouth are turned up.
The brain is not capable of noticing small changes when the figure is turned upside down, but notices it immediately after turning 180 degrees.
It is an optical illusion that has been around since 1980 when a scientist created what is believed to be the first iteration.
It appeared in an article by Peter Thompson of York University and contained an edited image of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
The shot of her face was flipped 180 degrees while her eyes and mouth were upside down.
Upside down she looked normal, while standing up she looked grotesque.
As a result, the illusion is sometimes called the Thatcher effect.
In the decades since, many similar images have emerged, each revealing much about the way the brain processes images.
Faces seem unique to us even though they are all quite similar, and this has to do with our cognitive processes.
It is believed that we develop specific processes to distinguish faces that are based on the configuration of features, such as eyes, nose, and mouth, as details of the facial features themselves.
As such, we can recognize someone’s face when it’s upside down, even if their eyes and nose are turned up.
There is evidence that rhesus monkeys and chimpanzees experience the Thatcher effect.
This suggests that our ability to process faces evolved from a common ancestor around 30 million years ago.
To try it yourself, thatchereffect.com lets you try it on famous faces, or on your own.
2
Another illusion of Musk in reverse shows the same effect. The left shows the image cropped in an upward direction and the right shows it rotated 180 degrees.
The best tips and tricks for phones and devices.
Looking for tips and tricks for your phone? Do you want to find those secret features inside social media apps? We’ve got you covered…
We pay for your stories! Have a story for The Sun Online science and technology team? Email us at [email protected]
Categories: Optical Illusion
Source: HIS Education