The Troxler Illusion
Stare at the centre of the fuzzy image above without blinking. After a few seconds, what do you see? Does the image start to fade away?
This visual phenomenon called the Troxler Effect, first discovered by Swiss physician Ignaz Paul Vital Troxler in 1804, reveals how our visual system adapts to sensory stimuli. This is due to the fact that our neurons stop responding to unchanging stimuli–in this case, the static blurry image in the background–which causes the image to disappear from our consciousness.
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