If you look at the black dot, you can see it's right there. Focus on the other dots, and it looks like the black dot is moving across them. ""Find the black dot" illusions, like the Hermann grid, exploit the way our brains process visual information, particularly the phenomenon of lateral inhibition, causing the dots to appear and disappear depending on where you focus. There's Lateral Inhibition... You see, our eyes have specialized cells that enhance contrast by suppressing signals from neighboring cells. When you focus on a point in the grid, the cells around that point are inhibited, making the intersections appear brighter (or the dots seem to disappear). Peripheral Vision can play a role in this, too. Our peripheral vision is less sensitive to detail and more prone to these effects. When you focus on one intersection, your peripheral vision is tasked with processing the others, and the dots at those intersections can seem to fade or disappear. And then there's the Toxler effect. This phenomenon, also known as Troxler's effect, describes how visual stimuli in our peripheral vision can fade or disappear when we fixate our gaze on a specific point. Your brain's interpretation of the image is pretty intriguing. Also, there's one more. The brain tries to fill in the gaps and create a coherent image, which can lead to the perception of the dots appearing and disappearing. How to see the dots... It's pretty easy. To see the dots, focus on the center of the grid and then slowly move your eyes to the intersections where the dots are supposed to be." -Michael
Michael is a friend of mine, so no, I didn't call over Vsuace to help me with this.
