Test how your brain works with video: In which direction is the horse running?

Created: 05/13/2022Updated: 05/13/2022 15:47

By: Judith Brown

A running horse is said to provide information about our personality and character traits.

A neuroscientist thinks nothing of it.

Munich – People have always been fascinated by optical illusions.

The phenomenon has been known since antiquity, and in the 1960s it even gave rise to its own art movement.

And for as long as social networks have existed, images or videos of optical illusions have regularly gone viral.

It was the same when last year a video appeared on the short message service Twitter that was supposed to show how our brains tick.

Testing brain activity with video: In which direction is the horse running?

It is said that either the left or the right hemisphere of the human brain dominates.

Neuroscientists have been studying this phenomenon for years.

(Iconic image) © cherezoff/IMAGO

BBC presenter Julia Bradbury (51) posted the following video of a walking horse on her Twitter account.

She wrote: "If you see a horse running forward, you are left-brained.

If you see it running backwards, you're right-brained.” Supposedly, the direction you see is supposed to tell you about brain activity and which side of your brain is dominant.

So there is no right or wrong answer to the question: In which direction do you think the horse is going?

Video test is supposed to show if you are right-brained or left-brained

If the horse runs to the right in your eyes, then the right hemisphere is said to dominate in your brain.

Right-brained people are generally said to have creativity and artistic talent.

On the other hand, if the horse runs to the left, you seem to be one of the people with a more developed left brain hemisphere.

Left-brained people are generally considered methodical and analytical in their thinking.

However, there are doubts about the validity of this “test”.

Neuroscientists have been trying to explain the right- and left-brain phenomenon, which is said to explain human behavior, for years.

It is an optical illusion.

Brain researcher Steven Novalla explains that optical illusions show how our brain processes visual information to create a visual model of the world.

According to the scientist, the test cannot say anything about whether you are more creative or think analytically: “None of this means that your personality or your ability corresponds more to the right or the left brain.”

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Optical illusions: What is happening in our brain during this?

Normally, our eyes and brain are used to reacting to changes in brightness and luminance in a three-dimensional space.

However, the optical illusions are two-dimensional.

Now our brain tries to transfer the rules from the three-dimensional space.

While the eye is working normally, our brain is being tricked.

It remembers and composes images based on its experiences.

This happens, for example, with optical illusions where the wrong sizes are feigned.

Numerous tourists can be photographed with the Statue of Liberty in New York, for example: In the photos, "Miss Liberty" then looks quite tiny - as if she could fit between the index finger and thumb.

Other tricks of this type involve the interaction of colors or the differentiation of contrasts.

Such an optical illusion recently caused a sensation in the Twitter community: Which number do you see in the picture?

This article only contains general information on the respective health topic and is therefore not intended for self-diagnosis, treatment or medication.

In no way does it replace a visit to the doctor.

Unfortunately, our editors are not allowed to answer individual questions about clinical pictures.