# The Truth About the Spinning Dancer



## David Baxter PhD (May 7, 2008)

The Truth About the Spinning Dancer
By Tara Parker-Pope, _New York Times Blog_
April 28, 2008

A popular e-mail going around features a spinning dancer that has been touted as a test of whether you are right-brained and creative or left-brained and logical. If you see the dancer spinning clockwise, the story goes, you are using more of your right brain, and if you see it moving counterclockwise, you are more of a left-brained person.



*Clockwise or counterclockwise?*
But while the dancer does indeed reflect the brain savvy of its creator, Japanese Web designer Nobuyuki Kayahara, it is not a brain test. Instead, it is simply an optical illusion called a reversible, or ambiguous, image. Images like this one have been long studied by scientists to learn more about how vision works.

The silhouette image of the spinning dancer doesn?t have any depth cues. As a result, your eyes will sometimes see the dancer standing on her left leg and spinning to the right. And sometimes they will perceive her as standing on her right leg and spinning to the left. Most people, if they stare at the image long enough, will eventually see her turn both ways.

Perhaps the most-studied reversible image is the Necker cube, which looks like the wire-frame of a cube. The picture also lacks depth cues, so sometimes the face of the cube appears on the lower left, but sometimes it jumps to the back and the face of the cube shifts. A moving rotating Necker cube can be seen here.

?What?s happening here to cause the flip is something happening entirely within the visual system,'? said Thomas C. Toppino, chair of the department of psychology at Villanova University. ?If we can understand why it is these figures reverse then we?re in a position to understand something pretty fundamental to how the visual system contributes to the conscious experience.'?

Sometimes, a person will stare at an image and it will never reverse. Dr. Toppino advises staring at one part of the image, such as the foot, and most of the time it will eventually flip. I tried this several times, but it never flipped. Dr. Toppino says in people who can?t see the reversal, it may be that one underlying neural structure is more dominant, but once someone finally manages to see the flip, it will start to happen more often.

I did finally see the dancer flip, but it was only after using a sort of cheat sheet that draws a line on the dancer?s standing leg. To see the lined image moving clockwise, click here. To see it move counterclockwise, click here.
And if you haven?t wasted enough time staring at the Necker cube and spinning dancer, check out these fun optical illusions.


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## Lana (May 7, 2008)

Is it just me or does she only spin clockwise?  I have clicked the links and saw both versions but my brain is stuck on clockwise.


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## Lana (May 7, 2008)

Ok, I got it!  I can see it counterclocwise also.  But I have to "change direction" peripherally. I can't do it when staring directly at it...I always swich back to clockwise.  Very weird.


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## Halo (May 7, 2008)

Lana said:


> Is it just me or does she only spin clockwise?  I have clicked the links and saw both versions but my brain is stuck on clockwise.




I got the same as you....saw it both ways once I clicked the links but now she is back to clockwise only....very weird!!!


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## SoSo (May 7, 2008)

Someone sent me that illusion about a year ago.  I found if I look a couple of inches directly above the dancer, her leg just goes back and forth in front of her, she doesn't go around in a circle.  If I look to the left a couple of inches above the image it goes one way, change my view to the right of the dancer yet still above her it goes to the opposite direction.  Makes me dizzy but a fun distraction.
Feistyeek:


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## Banned (May 7, 2008)

I noticed her right off going in both directions.  Interesting how we all look at the same thing but see it differently.


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