This fun visual illusion was a top ten finalist in the Best Visual Illusion of the Year 2007, hosted by the Neural Correlate Society (donate if you like this annual contest!). From the description: "Some regions in the brains are darker, some lighter than the background. (Please note that we are not denouncing your little dirty thoughts, we just talk about the brains in the picture.) ..."
Researchers who created Bouncing Brains (Hansen, Hamburger and Gegenfurtner) are also known for an illusion recently published in Nature Neuroscience on why we don't perceive blue bananas. Check out Hansen, T., Olkkonen, M., Walter, S. & Gegenfurtner, K.R. Memory modulates color appearance, Nature Neuroscience, 2006, 9, 1367-1368. free PDF.





Comments
A completely blank space. I get it - it's an illusion of an illusion.
Posted by: csrster | May 22, 2007 9:05 AM
Not only the illusion, but the links themselves are also broken.
Posted by: Dave Munger | May 22, 2007 9:15 AM
hmpf... I'm not getting anything either ;)
Posted by: steve | May 22, 2007 9:25 AM
I think they may have taken the site down -- links that used to work no longer do.
Posted by: Dave Munger | May 22, 2007 11:00 AM
they actually got dugg... so they might not be able to afford the hits :(
Posted by: steve | May 22, 2007 11:36 AM
Hmm, I don't know what went on this morning in Eastern time, but everything is fine now. The illusion (linked from VodPod) is there, the Best Illusion links work, and the links to Nature Neuroscience and the PDF are fine. Were all those broken? Weird...
Posted by: Sandra | May 22, 2007 1:00 PM
Hmm, I don't know what went on this morning in Eastern time, but everything is fine now. The illusion (linked from VodPod) is there, the Best Illusion links work, and the links to Nature Neuroscience and the PDF are fine. Were all those broken? Weird...
Posted by: Sandra | May 22, 2007 1:20 PM