IF you thought Elon Musk buying Twitter was weird, wait until you see this bizarre optical illusion.
The billionaire Tesla founder has seemingly snapped up the social media app – but you might find this photo of Musk harder to get your head around.
2
On first glance, you might not see anything wrong with the happy snap – except for it being upside-down.
However, on closer inspection, you’ll notice that his facial features aren’t quite right.
Flip the image upside down and you’ll spot that the South African’s eyes and mouth are actually the right way up.
The brain is not able to spot the small changes when the figure in it is upsidedown but notices right away once it’s flipped 180-degrees.
It’s an optical illusion that has been around since 1980 when a scientist created what’s thought to be the first iteration.
It was shown in a paper by Peter Thompson, of York University, and featured a doctored image of former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
The snap of her face was flipped 180-degrees while her eyes and mouth were inverted.
Most read in News Tech
Upsidedown she looked normal, while when upright she looked grotesque.
As a result, the illusion is sometimes called the Thatcher Effect.
Plenty of similar images have cropped up in the decades since, each revealing a lot about the way that the brain processes images.
Faces seem unique to us even though they’re all pretty similar, and that’s to do with our cognitive processes.
It’s thought that we develop specific processes to differentiate between faces that rely on the configuration of features – such as the eyes, nose and mouth – as the details of the facial features themselves.
As such, we are able to recognise someone’s face when it’s upsidedown even if their eyes and nose have been flipped.
There is evidence that rhesus monkeys and chimpanzees experience the Thatcher effect.
This suggests that our ability to process faces evolved in a common ancestor some 30 million years ago.
To try it for yourself, a website, thatchereffect.com, allows you to give it a go with famous faces – or your own.
2
Best Phone and Gadget tips and hacks
Looking for tips and hacks for your phone? Want to find those secret features within social media apps? We have you covered…
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online Tech & Science team? Email us at [email protected]
This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
