This OUTRAGEOUS Optical Illusion Defies Belief!

[@RickyMaveety]

Nope, the stuff on Fleming’s Petri dish didn’t kill the mold. The mold had killed the bacteria.

[@verynearlyinteresting]

Ahhhhh thank you Ricky 🙈

[@stillhere1425]

I didn't even notice that! Sometimes you hear what you expect to hear.

[@RickyMaveety]

@@stillhere1425 Some of us are autistic, and like it or not, hear every damned word.

[@vintagepipesnightmares]

Nope. The Romanian savant Victor Babeș discovered penicillin

[@RickyMaveety]

@ Nope. In fact Babeş died before the discovery of penicillin. Great man, but he had nothing to do with penicillin.

[@koriw1701]

New sub. Psych nurse here. As someone who LOVES trying to figure out what makes our brains tick, this show is very clever. I'd seen most of these teasers, but you certainly have a way with words, and here I thought that *_I_* had a lot of energy! I have ADHD and you make me feel calm. Thanks for the fun and laughs.

[@verynearlyinteresting]

That’s such a nice comment to receive, thank you so much. Tez

[@TheHmm43]

I slowed the videos down all the way and had the same effect, but even more satisfying

[@TheHmm43]

Also, the music is even creepier

[@TheHmm43]

Haha, I did that right before he did it too!! Good job, bravo.

[@BitOHoney276]

Yes!! Much better horror!

[@trevorodell5564]

This actually makes perfect sense when you consider how vision actually works. Our eyes are shockingly low resolution, but our brains composite the image from a buffer of recent data recorded. All the low-res images get combined to make a higher res image, much in the way that you see a "full" image through the network of holes on the door of your microwave, or the grid of a window screen. I got a real-life demo of this when I got a nasty concussion which tanked my visual "processing power," and left my vision 90% blurry (like etched glass on a shower) where my mental "GPU" couldn't keep up, with small pinpoints of perfectly clear vision that I could just barely read a street sign through as long as I leaned a bit side-to-side to allow the whole word to pass through the small visible spots a few letters at a time. It was wild. Peripheral vision has a much lower concentration of these "pixels," so the brain has less useful "buffered data" to composite the image, and has to reach back farther into memory to fill the gaps, adding some of the previous image(s) into the mix to fill in the "full" image, and filling in whatever gaps may remain with what we expect to see based on our biological "algorithm." When the facial features aren't perfectly lined up, it spawns new ones, then leaves our instincts to resolve the contradiction, to unnerving results.

[@shadowswept9167]

It's also interesting that AI face generation software - especially older versions - produce very similar distortions to what we see with this illusion.

[@trevorodell5564]

@shadowswept9167 Probably for precisely the same reasons. Either because AI learning methods are designed to mimic human brains, or if you prefer Musk's version, because we may already be a digitized part of a simulated world. 😅

[@russelltalker]

So it demonstrates that what we think we see, we actually render with out imagination from the limited sense data.

[@hijackhypergamy]

Psycho visual and psycho aural processing. The same way video codecs work. Our brain does the rest.

[@Artcore103]

Sounds plausible but why would our hardware algorithm make the faces look demonic or monsterish (like the creatures from From)? it doesn't explain that part. And they don't look blurry either (not any more than normal based on time on screen) - just distorted.

[@bryede]

When I was younger, I noticed that if I watched someone talking on TV but kept my stare off to the side of their head long enough, their eyes and mouth would begin to distort and float above the image. Our brains recognize facial elements and try to drag our eyes to bring them to center.

[@verynearlyinteresting]

Oh wow!

[@Technichian462]

When I was 5, I noticed if I stared at an object long enough, it would catch fire… sorry, couldn’t help it. The object I was looking at was all I could see. The peripheral vision would turn off. Just went grey. But it took extreme concentration, any movement would reset the illusion. I also have an eye trick, and only have met one other person in my 61 years here on this planet that could do it too. Shaking my eyeballs back and fourth about 6 times a second. Thy move about 1 or 2 mm. Or the width of three thumbs at arms length. It does give me a special ability. I can created my own strobe effects on moderately moving objects. Like ceiling fans. I can count the number of blades on a ceiling fan. As the motion is strobe stopped while I shake me eyes. I cant do it for too long, and it makes my eye muscles hurt. Just tested, made it to 30 seconds. Another thing that I can do with that is see strobing lights. Like LEDs that have a two way cycle to make them brighter. The LED is only half as bright, when only using half the cycles. Certain cars use these types of LEDs in a three foot vertical strip of LEDs. You might notice this when you turn your gaze to look at something. As you sweep your eyes over it, they almost look like they are blinging. Thats because they are blinking. I used my phones camera to catch the eye movement. Used slow motion capture. It was one of the first slomo captures I ever did.

[@johnoshaughnessy670]

Once, when extremely baked, I was sort of fading in and out while my friends conversed around me. I noticed at one point, when my vision rested on a point just to the right one friend's face, her features would start to contort as though she were trying to mess with me intentionally by making a bunch of rapidly-shifting expressions like suddenly widening her eyes and sticking her tongue out at me, but then changing to some other positioning within split second, then changing again rapidly, on and on like that. A new bizarre expression would overtake her features every third of a second or so. I would occasionally look directly at her to see if she was really doing this only to repeatedly realize that she was being completely normal and not looking in my direction at all (until I started to get her attention by my strange reactions LOL- at that point I had to offer an explanation, or attempt to). I thought this was something to do with marijuana specifically, but now I am realizing that my high was just amplifying a natural optical illusion. How funny. I guess the peripheral potion of our vision involves a lot of guesswork on the brain's part.

[@PenRippyJr]

@@Technichian462 i can vibrate my eyeballs too! exactly like you describe and never met anyone else who could. i also use it on occasion to see things differently

[@razeezar]

I've noticed an interesting optical illusion fairly recently (within the past year) - If I'm watching a TV screen and I'm in a position where its reflection is visible on a glass door in my peripheral vision, and it's dark outside, any changes on the reflected image of the screen (movement , change of camera shot etc) seem to happen a small fraction of a second _after_ the event on the main screen (perhaps no more than 1/10 of a second). This only happens as long as I keep the reflection mostly in peripheral, even if I'm looking nearly but not directly at the TV. If I look directly at the reflection, the perceived delay vanishes, yet the actual (non-reflected) TV image doesn't seem to be delayed instead. I wonder whether this has to do with how our peripheral vision reacts based upon brightness, with the reflection being noticeably dimmer.

[@relaxsleep9189]

I think I know why... It's the rate of the image to the next face. The brain's rate to analyze what it's seeing from the first image is still processing and too slow while the next image arrives to process. This in turn begins a warping effect of the face. And since our brains are already hot wired to see faces it's a distorted image and looks 'incomplete', or 'ugly'.

[@charleshill506]

I believe that the face illusion happens because your brain is wired to make the center of vision the most important and uses the most bandwidth for that. The peripheral vision can't be focused and is used mainly for detection of movement, so our internal "video card" allocates fewer resources. In other words at a certain frame rate our vision is overloaded.

[@verynearlyinteresting]

@@charleshill506 Very well put indeed Charles. Tez

[@ianboyle1026]

Interesting thought, but frame rate isn't a factor. See my extended comment above.

[@charleshill506]

@@ianboyle1026 Okay, take frame rate out of my post and I still think I come pretty close to a simple explanation. Also are you talking about the video because I could not fine your extended comment.

[@ianboyle1026]

@@charleshill506 My extended comment is immediately below this one on my feed. (Can't guarantee it'll stay there, I don't know what determines comments' placements.) It's under my name and begins: "OK (apologies and full credit..." so a word search might help you find it.

[@onidaaitsubasa4177]

I think it happens primarily because our visual system is trying to process both different faces at the same exact time when we focus between them, so we get distorted amalgamations of both of them.

[@blushslice]

It’s like our own version of far off faces in ai generated photos

[@verynearlyinteresting]

Well put! Tez 😊

[@4saken404]

Yeah it made me look at the world like Midjourney v 1.0 might see it! 😆

[@trevorodell5564]

Honestly, I think it's exactly that. By staring away from the image, we're starving our brains of the detailed visual memory it would otherwise be able to use as a learning model to fill in the immense gaps in the sparse handful of "pixels" that it can glean from our peripheral vision.

[@MKdGlu]

Amazing! It would actually explain a lot on anthropology and the development of mythology.

[@bishopp14]

I've always wondered how much mythology came from people with vision issues living in a time with limited or no way to correct eyesight.

[@binra3788]

@@bishopp14 I'll posit that myth or 'story' of symbolic significance underlies 'object reality' as a continuum or 'time' set over experience of a split mind or separation trauma as a masking dissociation giving 'survival focus' as a 'consciousness' by which the split is rendered 'unconscious'. Faces communicate personae or masking aspects of the 'god' or characteristic quality of emotional/mental balance/imbalance in expression. That the 'gods' are constellated in shifting alliances and oppositions is the basis for hyper-alertness to 'change in the Heavens', now operating as reading the room or the situation in play. This function is relegated to subconscious routines so as to allow a bubble of 'normality' as a stable or reliably predictable sense of self and world within a split or dissociative mind or focus. The distorting faces illusion is partly framed in the release of the 'fixing continuity' of this focus to a peripheral awareness which can be called 'psychically sensitive or receptive' - receptive to information from wide field, but selectively sensitised to triggers relative to conditioned fears along with defences invoked to offset, allay or mitigate fear. Staring at our own face in a mirror or a mutual session with another, face to face, will -if allowed' drop into peripheral awareness, open the realm of 'angels and demons' in terms of projections that can initiate self reinforcing feedback. releasing projections to receive a true presence is giving a true with-ness. Without this centering or grounding quality, the enforcement of 'normality' will be aligned in as either the breaking or blocking of communication, or a contract to mask in social distancing - as in a clique without real intimacy or a psuedo-community. But from grounded acceptance of the moment as is, the synchronous smile of the eyes moves as one in the release of specific focus to the wider situation - the room, or the flow of relationship as a whole in the situation at hand. Without the grounding embrace of the center - all attempts to 'correct sight' will war with our own unconscious conditionings and thus endlessly repeat or reinforce it in shifting narratives of self-inflations and destructions or boom and bust, relative to the 'gods' of our particular and collective alignment. Rationalisation as distinct from grounded Reason, seeks monopoly under ideals set over and apart from the 'mess' of life viewed unworthy and treacherous by contrast. Usurping the mind's true function is the 'split mind' of self-illusion by which we seek to gain for a split off self as our overriding or existential necessity or dictate. The focus of a mindset at war will override all wide-field or peripheral 'messengers' or evidences, as attempt to control reality 'externally'- which is clearly delusional and self-destructive - or rather denying our own 'wider' embrace' of creative being for the belief such a war makes sense or can be won. There is an objective reality that is truly lived and shared, but that subjective bias discards or rejects for its own 'reasons' - but its unifying quality and characteristic is not an objecting rule and filter of imposed dictates, but in the nature of giving and receiving as one- which is a Gift that cannot be commoditised, patented, manufactured, weaponised or officially mandated. We are always looking into the Face of Reality - but who is looking 'out'? What we choose or accept sets the measure of our receipt.

[@johnrowley4410]

Absolutely bewildering! Thanks Tez.

[@BoogerDad]

I'm noticing that it seems to be particular features that are exaggerated in the peripherals. Someone who's face has generally larger eyes, will more than likely end up looking like a cyclops, while some bigger smile people are appearing with huge thick lips. My guess is it has something to do with your brain doing it's best to fill in gaps while also accentuating the points of interest your eye would normally be drawn to if looking at it straight on. So definitely something computational.

[@Artcore103]

perhaps, but why am I seeing sharp long monster like teeth? lol.

[@VincentNajger1]

Subbed. I'm from Queensland and I can confirm that people's faces are actually just melting. It's coz of the 40°c 98% humidity weather we get for months over summer lol

[@verynearlyinteresting]

Thanks for subscribing and the great comment 😆Tez

[@Melnokina.-.]

Its the same all over the Southern Hemisphere dude

[@alveolate]

rip our faces when climate change hits harder

[@DigitallyRemasteredMusic]

By far, my favourite geezer on the internet! Always a joy to watch.

[@verynearlyinteresting]

What a lovely thing to say! If that isn’t going to put a spring in my step today nothing will. Thank you, Tez

[@DigitallyRemasteredMusic]

@ you’re welcome Tez!

[@chrisball3778]

Nice collection of illusions,. That spinning dancer didn't work for me at all though. I looked away and back a bunch of times, and rewound it a couple of times, but could only ever see her going clockwise.

[@crooker2]

I've seen it change before (I could change its direction at will), but this time I couldn't make it change. Wasn't concentrating hard enough.

[@bexwrite2714]

I only saw it clockwise too, until I focused on her foot, then told myself the foot was going anti-clockwise, then looked at the whole image again and that worked for me

[@Thenogomogo-zo3un]

@@bexwrite2714 Spinning dancer got a nice figure, that worked for me

[@Thenogomogo-zo3un]

Spinning dancer got a nice figure. That worked for me

[@humansvd3269]

​@crooker2 Same. Don't focus too hard and slightly look offside in any direction .

[@MeAuntieNora]

Fascinating!

[@teresadalessio1]

The A and B tiles illusion is a trip.

[@JustDoIt12131]

If you really want to get mindblown with that illusion, form a circle with your hand around the B tile in a way that you cannot see the tiles that are affected by the shadow. One would think the illusion dissapears doing that, but it actually makes it even more incredible. I even tried to close my eyes or look away for some seconds for my brain to "reset" its perception, but it didn't work. The peak illusion is when you do the same but resume the video and follow the B tile with your "circle hand" to the spot next to the A tile and you still see them very differently and then you just get the hand away LMAO

[@ObeyCamp]

I followed the instructions and looked at the faces the first time you played the video (I chose to watch the faces on the left,) and I could already start to see the effe t happening to the opposite stack of images, but when the cross was on screen and I stared at that, the effect was WAY stronger. This might be my favorite optical illusion ever. There's something so fascinating about the way these appalling and grotesque but ultimately nonexistant faces are being generated in the brain from normal, even attractive people. The way my brain is the one generating this cartoonish "face gore" is just such a captivating mystery. Why must you betray me so often, Brain? How could you!? 😅

[@Elvisultimatefanchannel]

The spinning Dancer never changed direction for me at all...not even after many tries. Is there something wrong with me....hold on...no need to answer that..😅

[@verynearlyinteresting]

🤣

[@paulchambers3142]

I didn't see any change until Ted said look away for a second...on return the dancer had changed direction 😮

[@bramsanjanssan4908]

Try blinking your eyes fast. That worked for me.

[@Elvisultimatefanchannel]

@bramsanjanssan4908 Nope,all that happened was my Wife thought I'd gone Mad(der) 😂

[@marycollins1024]

Me either.

[@michelleford7392]

Awesome! Excellent! Can’t wait to share with friends!!

[@the1_grammy503]

I very much enjoyed it. Thank you!

[@Ta2dwitetrash]

The pink dots that turn green work on the same premise as the faces. The lag you get with the green color is the same as the lag with the facial features. Causing the overlap. And for both of them, if you stop looking at the cross, the illusion disappears. As the lag stops.

[@familyoftwo7441]

Whats causing it is the same reason when you look at the second hand of a clock for the first time sometimes it seems to just pause,like its taking a long time to move,its called chronostasis,your brain takes i dont know a second or half a second to process a new image,so it stores a sudden change till it can compute or decide what it is,then its in flow,becaues your not looking directly at them and its going fast all your brain is doing is holding on to part of a face trying to compute it,then another comes,its still storing info,and due to the fact our brain is trained to see faces its call paredolia,delaying and just building a face,it probable wont work with anything that does not resemble a face.little experiment,try changing the video speed.

[@oiooiioioiooioii5400]

This is actually an interesting illusion and presents challenges with eye witness testimony.

[@NoName-ik2du]

Wow, this video made my eyes get very red and water profusely. It even made me ever so slightly nauseated. I went and looked in the mirror, and it looked like I was bawling.

[@harrybarrow6222]

Very curious! I found it difficult to stay focused on the cross; when something flashes in the periphery your eyes naturally try to turn towards it. But I definitely saw glimpses of the illusion when you played it more slowly.

[@galfisk]

The distortion seems to be caused by the brain interpreting the changes as motion, but overdoing that motion. Perhaps it troes to continue the motion throughout the frame even if the frame is static. Perhaps since the peripgeral vision is so low res, it can't see the difference? It is very attuned to motion, so that we can quickly look at something that catches our eye. It may also be attuned to faces to s high degree, making this illusion work particularly well with those.

[@gooshnpupp]

The illusion worked for me with pausing the video and covering one of the faces. Meaning, the coupling and the changes have little to do with it

[@mrmcbeth]

This is amazing. Thank you.

[@verynearlyinteresting]

You're very welcome! Tez

[@Sk8Bettty]

Whenever the next face is very different from the one before it (hairline, color, jaw shape, expression) I see a creepier face. It’s as if my brain is blending the faces. If they’re similar faces, it’s not as creepy. 🤷‍♀️✌️🍿

[@therealjammit]

Sort of the same thing here, except the faces started blending into an average and started looking like those "gray aliens" that some think abduct people.

[@timmiller1]

I agree. It’s the change that’s key.

[@onidaaitsubasa4177]

Yeah, that's why I wonder what happens if you repeat the test but with the same face on both sides at the same time.

[@Martin-bx1et]

I'm happy that my brain deals with abstract lines that resemble the perspective i see in the 3D world as perspectives. It's kinda useful. 😊

[@dougmccann7386]

Thanks!

[@verynearlyinteresting]

Oh wow thank you so much Doug, that’s so kind of you!!! Much appreciated, Tez

[@fearlessjoebanzai]

The checkerboard shadow shades, the wonky lines and the "which line is longer", illusions are all fascinating - though ultimately explainable, no matter how much they break our grey matter! The distorted faces, flashing by in our periphery, are just that -distorted by flashing by in our periphery!!! Remember this when people tell you (or you even tell yourself), that they've seen a ghost! Or a lizzid person!

[@Artcore103]

I thought of 2 possibilities that seemed like they might explain what I was perceiving. 1) the closer half of each face (right side of the left image, left side of right) were put together by my brain to create a single face - on whichever side my mind (not my eyes) was perceptually focusing on... so the distortion was related to seeing a face made of two halves of different faces. this might be distance dependent so I should retest at different distances (different angles from the center of vision), but even small changes in angle change the "resolution" we see at dramatically, so the closer half of each face really is "rendered" in more detail than the outer half, and if you think about crossing your eyes, your brain has experienced seeing a single face split in two with the right and left swapped... so maybe this mimics crossing your eyes, which your brain is more used to interpreting as a single face. 2) the changes between the faces from one to the next appear exaggerated, leading to some freaky looking faces I guess those two explanations don't explain why half the faces look utterly demonic... so yeah there's that. Lol.

[@onidaaitsubasa4177]

Have you tried having the same face on both sides at the same time? Because I believe I know what's happening, I think the brain's visual system is trying to process both faces at the same exact time when you focus on the center between the two, so you get a weird distorted version of both.

[@verynearlyinteresting]

@@onidaaitsubasa4177 That’s a really good idea

[@AbsolutelyAverage]

My theory - and I’ll name it ‘carry over’. When focused on the centre, the brain has to put together the images to the outside. In doing so, we are seeing the face on the left, and the face on the right simultaneously but putting half of the Left face together with half of the Right face. Added to this, we probably add the eyes of the previous face to the head of the new face - hence ‘Carry Over’. We are carrying over the left part of the face on the right with the right part of the face on the left, whilst adding parts of the previous face to the new one. There, I cleared it up. Nobel prize delivery details on request 😂

[@nerolmars3701]

I liked your comment because I like your hypothesis, but I see the same effect when catching my reflection from my peripheral vision and there's only my face involved there, not a second one.

[@Artcore103]

I thought of that as well, but ianboyle's response above was more convincing. your own explanation could explain distortions and face-mixing etc, but it doesn't specifically address why they end up looking so demonic... not just mixed or cartoonishly distorted, like larger eyes... but straight up monstrous and sometimes evil.

[@critical1388]

Its like when ur staring at the cross the faces seem to overlap for a microsecond distorting the images...

[@MarkBowenPiano]

With the train tracks (I used to have that in a magic set on two pieces of card) it's very easy to know why that one works as they're just not lined up together correctly. If you draw a line straight down from one of the 'corners' of the top piece then it's not lined up with the bottom piece. This explanation was given in the Paul Daniels magic set that I had and it's absolutely correct.

[@Stefan_Van_pellicom]

I was watching this on the toilet. I appreciated the repeated being given time to work it out.

[@Z-Ack]

Like the magic eye pictures. Never could see the image everyone else saw.. the faces didnt change..

[@youtoobfarmer]

The obvious conclusion is that plus signs scramble human vision.

[@christabb8481]

What's happening is the images are switching so quickly it's causing an afterimage affect. The images are so quick that our brains can't process the new image fast enough. Essentially blending the old and new images together, creating a new "distorted" image. Solved.

[@IzWhiteII]

In the Jastro Illusion, the top left corners are aligned in a way that makes the top section look shorter. if they were put equally next to each other, they would look the same. I had a toy train set and made the same discovery when I was a toddler.

[@the-scamp]

Thank you very much for taking the time to create another great video.

[@verynearlyinteresting]

Oh thank you!

[@miezepups15]

Txperimenttd a bit. For me it also works if I pause the video and look at the cross with one eye, covering either face with my hand. It's early Dall-E, trying to generate a face.

[@airstripone2419]

No, i didn't see distorted faces. I saw a black cross, as instructed.

[@ToriZealot]

Scary actually, interesting

[@devastator_gaming2205]

I swear I can make my brain focus on certain parts of the faces I was able to do it with all 4 eyes both mouths and both nose and when focusing on them with my periferal vision they don't change

[@TheAdeybob]

the effect is a residual overlay. Probably something to do with the time it takes for information to reach the brain from the eyes. Most of what we 'see' is usually fuzzy peripheral vision that's been 'filled in' by the brain. We get the same effect when we partially cover one eye, but can still see with binocular vision.

[@DusanPavlicek78]

For me, the Cafe Wall Illusion is much stronger if I move further away from the image. I realized this because I perceived the illusion more strongly in the real world photo from the cafe than in the "official" image that demonstrates the illusion -- and I figured out it's because in the photo, the pattern is smaller.

[@josephrapp]

Your slower one caused much stronger distortion. Thanks.

[@werewolf74]

H O L Y SHIT !!!!!! AAAYEEEEE !!!!!! I have seen this illusion before but wow. that cross REALLY helped. I can say there is a sweet spot, of viewing distance as well, too close or far something is lost. It makes me wonder if, that blind spot we al have in our vision plays a role here, our brain cant see it, so it auto-fills the information in.

[@ruperterskin2117]

Cool. Thanks for sharing.

[@pheebsbee1280]

Holy moly 😮!

[@postal_the_clown]

I'll go with a property of persistent vision. The same thing that causes us to see motion also fills in detail that isn't in any one frame. So like stacking lo-res pics to get a clear license plate, maybe the brain is trying to make sense of a changing pattern like looking through water or heat distortion.

[@SeaBreeze2247]

I wasn’t able to see the faces well enough to gauge the distortions. I did notice size changes in mouths and eyes. Very interesting & slightly spooky.

[@josephstaton4820]

I first watched the presentation staring at the cross and saw the same distortion as the rest of you all. Then I decided to focus my stare at the faces on the left. I watched the eyes, and the mouths were distorted. I focused my gaze on the mouths, and the eyes were distorted. Then I focused on the nose, and both the eyes and mouth were distorted. Lastly, I relaxed my gaze, cleared my mind, and both the mouth and eyes were distorted. Then I repeated the experiment with the faces on the left, and got the same results. 2 things to note; only certain transitions had the distortion, and the noses were less effected by the distortion. My armchair neurology hypothesis would be that the distortion is likely caused by 2 things; facial recognition, and lag. Our brains are hardwired to recognize faces. The eyes, nose, and mouth are recognized first because they are the most prominent features. The 2nd factor is lag. We don't see the world in real time. It takes several milliseconds for our visual cortex to process an image after the retina has been stimulated. What I think is happening is that the visual cortex is actively processing the first face when it receives the image of the next face, and it tries to reconcile the 2 images, resulting in the distortion. I think the distortion is only occurring in transitions where the borders of the 2 faces are more closely aligned. Another thing that may also come into play is the latent image effect. I'm mentioning this because the photo montage is set against a stark white background. If I had a decent video editor I would test the hypothesis by making a montage of faces that have the same over all size and shape. Then I would try different colored backgrounds to see if the contrast effects the distortion.

[@adamk2332]

I thoroughly believe it is due to persistence of vision and your brain's "effective frame rate". The reason the rate of picture switching plays such a role in the effect is that your visual cortex in your brain has a lag, or memory time frame, whichever you'd like to call it. You are still "seeing" what you WERE seeing while you are also actively seeing the new frame or image. It's the same type of sensitivity that makes a) low frame rate video and video games/animations appear obviously slow and twitchy, while at around 28 fps of stimulation (effective brain rendering rate) most people see it as fluid movement. And b) the higher frame rate displays of today, above the old standard 30fps, can cause a glitching, overly smooth or fuzzy appearance in many people because of the dissonance between the output frequency of the device and the brain's ability to process images. If your personal frame rate is let's say 10 for easy math, you may see any multiples of tens as relatively smooth and fluid, with some possible light, subtle flicker from the way the tens interact. 20 wil appear as ten to you, with the possibility of smoothing the averaging of moving images with that persistence of vision. If you have, say 20 base frame rate, then ten will look slow and choppy, and multiples of tens will have the same smoothing effect with some added because of more frames being averaged with that persistence. But now let's say you have 23 as a base rate. The display device is 30fps. Or 120. Or 240 or whatever it happens to be. The 23 into X , where X is the device's rate, isn't as smooth as any of the tens, and in fact has great depth of choppiness that can vary greatly. And how likely is it that any given person has a 30 or any multiple of ten (remember most people are around 28, and the variance isn't large, going to about 35), and when viewing devices that are typically standardized to tens, you can begin to see the idea. But then remembering also that refresh rate and fps are not always fixed in a device and can swing wildly themselves during rendering and processor use etc .. the possibility of dissonant frequency combinations between viewer and display is nearly guaranteed. And my long rant was mostly to just say that persistence of vision make some people feel dizzy or sick when viewing high end new fast displays. Just like it makes your brain see weird or grotesque mish mosh of details on that video test. 😁

[@jmodified]

If you pause the video the face will remain distorted indefinitely (until you look more directly at it). That seems to invalidate your theory. As the "new frames" pile up, the face should clarify, but it does not.

[@ianboyle1026]

@@jmodified Yep. See my extended comment above for a variation on your approach.

[@ianboyle1026]

Interesting, but I don't think so. See my extended comment above.

[@keithwalmsley1830]

Absolutely bizarre!! This channel is uniquely original and fascinating IMO, and as always, keep up the great work Tez!!! 👍👍

[@booradley4237]

Green dot wins for me

[@controlledburst]

Quantuum aesthesis. Our true image changes the moment we look at ourselves. The fragile nature of humility. The moment you turn to look at it, it transforms into vanity.

[@vishva8kumara]

I think I can explain this phenomena. It is about how our retina captures images and how our brain interpret that signal. Our retina does not capture absolute pixels like a digital camera. Retina senses each cone or rod cells excitation relative to the photoelectric excitation relative to adjacent cells (around it). There is also a temporal factor - that is the photo electric excitation each cell was previously in. The brain does not perceive our vision as a single frame. It rather processes each shape and feature separately before rendering the whole image on the back of our brain - on visual cortex. Our brain less frequently process visual features from peripheral vision, than focused vision When you show multiple images in rapid succession, our peripheral vision process features of the faces separately. When these frames are displayed in succession, those features are compared with the previous face, and the differences of facial features accumulate to weird and weirder faces - until we get the face to our focused vision (not peripheral) - or look directly. There are two faces on either side of the cross - so we do not get either face to our focused vision. It is a quirk in our vision about processing features on our peripheral vision.

[@sketchy_skeptik]

From my observation, my peripheral vision sees shades of darker colors more than normal. The distortion is further evident while your brain experiences the asymmetry between the two different faces.

[@cat3crazy]

I had to stop looking at the plus sign in the middle of the faces and look either right or left to verify what i was seeing. Of course the faces looked normal then.😮

[@hadz8671]

I know that café - used to walk past it when I was a student in Bristol.

[@verynearlyinteresting]

Oh wow!! 😮

[@demus89]

They look like characters from the game psychonauts!

[@typhoon2827]

1:20 "Let's jump straight in..." 😂

[@redbeki]

That's insane!!

[@MarkBowenPiano]

It's because the outer part of the image doesn't stay the same so for instance the forehead changes height and width but the items that go a little wonky such as the eyes and nose and so on are pretty much dead on in the sand place every time. It's a bit like when you used to get burn in on a TV screen that because those items 'look’ like they don't change to our minds then our mind 'thinks' they haven't changed which then makes the following images appear odd. That's my theory anyway. Never seen your channel before but that was a great little video. Liked seeing the Crooked House in the background in one part of the video. Used to love going their with my parents many years ago. I'm hopeful they will somehow reinstate it one day.

[@Elvisultimatefanchannel]

That's Crazy Tez. Another sleepless night ahead.Not because of the scary faces but trying to work it out

[@verynearlyinteresting]

@@Elvisultimatefanchannel Hi Steve!!!

[@cbnewham5633]

The rotating hollow face - the evenly lit colour one i could not force into concave, but the one with the directional lighting was easy to see as a rotating mould - Indeed, i had to force myself to imagine it as always convex. I think in this case the directional lighting causing shadows around the eyes, etc allowed for easier interpretation.

[@pimpozza]

0:45 😂 It's not only the _very definitely interesting_ facts I love about this channel.. but also your wicked sense of humour, Tez.. 🤣👌

[@verynearlyinteresting]

Ahh thanks @pimpozza that’s so nice of you. Tez

[@JMazzaTaz]

In regard to the “distorted face” illusion, I think it’s the different shapes and angles of the eyebrows that cause the effect

[@HJG-1019]

_Oh dear....._ I thought the "Before" faces were freaky and weird. The "After" faces are just as freaky.... _No difference!!!_

[@stillhere1425]

What planet are you from?

[@Juttutin]

I was disturbed by the before faces too, so much so that I thought he was joking when he said "all agree they were perfectly normal faces". But then the after was way worse. On second time through, so long as I decided to look at the left or right face for short periods they looked normal. I suspect that some people are just more inclined to try and take in the whole scene, leading to the effect even without being told to look at the middle.

[@devastator_gaming2205]

I'm freaky :)

[@Superabound2]

Yeah the faces all looked very Uncanny Valley and disturbing the first time i watched it

[@jelly434]

Ditto

[@czypauly07]

If you're having trouble getting the dancer to switch directions try blinking hard and rapidly.

[@thorus528]

Great Suff, well presented. No murican accent. Awesome

[@Lina5]

0:46 😂 Why did he troll himself like that? He ain’t grotesque!😅

[@verynearlyinteresting]

I’m going to take that as a compliment then 😆

[@Lina5]

@@verynearlyinteresting hun your handsome! 😊 Its a fact 😃 If anyone says otherwise its cuz they’ve been staring at that + too long! Lol

[@verynearlyinteresting]

@@Lina5 🤣 That’s so sweet of you. Tez

[@peterswires8439]

The mechanism underlying the Flashed Face illusion could be very similar to what happens in Charles Bonnet Syndrome. In the latter, the sufferer sees hideous faces that aren't there (among other hallucinations) because deterioration in the retina means the visual system isn't getting enough information to construct a proper image, and so starts making wild guesses. In the Flashed Face illusion, the visual system is similarly starved of information, because the images are falling on the part of the retina that has fewer receptors. That part of the retina is thus forced to try to do the job the macula would do, but just isn't up to it.

[@AnoopBalachandran]

The machines have been notified about these glitches in the Matrix. They are developing a patches soon to update your pods.

[@Mental_hygenics]

It's projection of an idea. Closing a eye to focus helps.

[@dareheis4033]

For me I could pause the video and see the faces distorted. I think because we have blind spots our brain fills in the places making them look weird. Also if you look at the foot of the spinning dancer you can make it seem like its going side to side or reverse direction.

[@bevishhh]

“We don’t experience the world as it is, we experience the world as our brain perceives it” 👏

[@kevinsmith7287]

Very good, many thanks.

[@vincentpollack]

It’s actually creepy i saw them having bruises. Crazy what the mind makes up

[@TheDeadTheories]

They got those 1994 PS1 era graphics! 😂

[@klbriceno1]

congratulations you broke my fragile little mind.

[@KarenG.-qs7wc]

Reminds me of when I ate some psilocybin mushrooms in 1979 😱

[@verynearlyinteresting]

@@KarenG.-qs7wc 😆

[@ef7480]

I discovered this affect years ago as a kid. You can do it by looking at yourself in a mirror. Focus on the background to the side of your reflection and hold it there....

[@markhorton8578]

Whilst I nearly always see optical illusions as others do, I have come across a rare few that do not. this is one of them. I really didn't notice any change.

[@Alfred-Neuman]

I'm just seeing a black cross, Am I really supposed to see anything else?

[@crooker2]

Further to this... You should do a video on 'magic eye' stereograms.

[@kriscollinstunes]

11:07 am I the only one whose brain added nipples? 😂😂😂

[@ThadMiller1]

No, they are there.

[@grokeffer6226]

Interesting stuff!!! 😵‍💫

[@dazherbert2782]

You invented someone with 3 eyes. This is crazy. Now I'm gonna watch the disappearing hand

[@gaynorbrook837]

Mind blown as ever Mr vni!🤣👍

[@verynearlyinteresting]

😆Hi Gaynor

[@gaynorbrook837]

@@verynearlyinteresting hiya😁👍

[@JasonWrightArt]

I saw some crazy stuff!

[@mariagordanier3404]

Weird indeed. Thank you!

[@timgreen3189]

The distortion effect is clearly your mind stitching characteristics of each side and attempting to make sense of the new 3d representation that is your vision..I personally notice many distortions as the faces simply being spun upside down

[@1066gaz]

My mum joan said she was one of the first in the uk to take penicillin. She contracted pneumonia meningitis in the early 1940's when she was around 6. She said she was in a hospital bed with a sort of tent over it with windows on the tent itself and that her parents looked through the window at her. If it were not for penicillin i maybe not have existed.

[@verynearlyinteresting]

@@1066gaz oh wow! What an incredible story! Thanks for sharing, Tez

[@ianboyle1026]

OK (apologies and full credit to any other commenter who's already done this), I've just done three things: First, I covered one half of the screen to see if there was a "confusion" effect due to the two halves of the brain getting too much input. Nope. The effect was the same, as long as I focused on the cross. Then I froze the video on the first image pair and stared at the cross. No fast switching at all, just static faces. They immediately looked weird, and the weirdness seemed to be centred on the eyes, which looked bigger than natural. Then I played the video at .25 speed, to test if persistence of vision had something to do with it. It doesn't. The illusion was just as strong. But once again, I was able to see that the weirdness/grotesqueness seemed to be to do with with the eyes, which tend to look over-size. So for me at least, I think the illusion has something to do with the fixed-stare effect -- since the eyes are all in the same position throughout -- and the fact that I'm deliberately not looking at eyes that are staring at me. I'm tentatively thinking it might be a primarily psychological effect produced by the unnatural act of not reacting to someone who is looking straight at me. My brain starts to exaggerate the size/significance of the eyes in order to "persuade" me to pay attention to them. Then when I don't, the brain begins to resort to fear-producing images, which get worse the longer I ignore them.

[@verynearlyinteresting]

What an awesome comment!!!! Thanks so much, fascinating! Tez

[@Snarlacc]

2:30 Man, they look like Oblivion characters.

[@niloo_atribecalledlove]

I don’t see any cyclops! The eyes just seem a bit more pronounced 😅

[@paulchambers3142]

Absolutely excellent 👏 I got all of the images... Nice one mate 👍