Wednesday, October 17, 2007

This is your brain. And this...

... is a link to a twirling dancer who, the story says, will help tell if your left brain or right brain is dominant.

Perhaps a parlor trick, though I will tell you that with concentration and coincidence, I have been able to see her spin both directions, so no saying it doesn't work at all!

Which way did you see her spin?

10 comments:

Kim / POWER OF RUN said...

As hard as I try, I only get clockwise. No hint of anything different.

Kim / POWER OF RUN said...

AHA! I finally saw both directions! YAY ME! (Sorry. That was really bugging me :-0

Greg Pincus said...

Well done, Kim. And I had that same issue as you -- always clockwise. Then when I finally saw the other way I was sooooo startled... and it quickly went back to clockwise! Amazing that it really can be seen both ways, whatever it means....

Anonymous said...

OK, that's just freaky. She was spinning counterclockwise, just as clear as could be, and there was no possible way she could spin the other way. But then she did. And I didn't see how she could have been not clockwise before! But then she switched back. All in the space of about 15 seconds. Then I closed the window. That's bizarre.

Gerkin Pickle said...

She started off clockwise, then changed direction. She would spin a couple of turns and then turn counterclockwise a couple of turns. She just kept switching back and forth. The longer I looked for one direction the more she switched back and forth. Strange.

david elzey said...

First I saw counter, refocused, than saw clockwise. I've run across these sort of things before and they really have less to do with right- or left-brain and more to do with the flexibility of what's generally called lateral thinking.

Greg Pincus said...

Hey, David. I'm not sure it truly has anything to do with right/left brain, but it's not what I'd normally think of as a lateral thinking puzzle, either. And I'm such an expert on this :-)

And Gherkin -- always good to have a pickle in the midst!

Anonymous said...

No ifs, ands, or buts...

CLOCKWISE,,,

Rita said...

This thing has been driving me and my friends crazy for two days. (Actually, it's only me that's gone crazy. Everyone else seems to find it no problem.)

My husband had me convinced it was an emperor's new clothes scam, but we finally both saw it "flip" (counter-clockwise) for the same 2 seconds. That convinced us the Web site was doing it, not our brains. Eventually we worked it out.

Anonymous said...

The twirly girl twists and turns in the wind for me which is mindbending and confusing as all get out. At switched.com under The Trippiest optical Illusions title,
they had someone there put the animation in Adobe ImageReady to isolate frames and see if any funny business is going on,and it's NOT. At test cafe, there is a 50 question The Brain Type Test, sort of related to this twirly phenomenon but my brain is now officially mush. topangamaria