Baffling optical illusion 'reveals how the brain works'

An optical illusion where two dots appear to ‘chase’ each other across a map of Tokyo offers an insight into how our brains really work.

The video, created by Yale University researchers, genuinely looks like a berserk chase across the city, with the dots pursuing each other across the map.

But the red dot isn’t actually moving at all, and the blue dot is just moving in a repeating pattern round it.

The researchers, who created the illusion for the Neural Correlate Society’s optical illusion contest, create the sense of movement by moving the map behind the dots.

Study author Benjamin van Buren said that the illusion shows how our brains tend to view things as if they are ‘living’ and conscious.

“Although researchers have traditionally focused on the motions of objects, what may really matter is how those objects move with respect to the surrounding scene,” Mr van Buren said.

“Here we demonstrate how a movement that signals animacy in one context may be perceived radically differently in the context of another scene.

“The primary goals of this study were to identify cues that trigger the perception of chasing, to quantify their influence, and to objectively evaluate the accuracy of this form of perception.”