A cognitive neuroscientist explains that the biological reason the image 'moves' is because the V5 (middle temporal visual area) part of your brain – devoted to motion processing – activates or fires due to the V4 part of your brain – devoted to colour and shape – becomes overstimulated.

In fact, V4 neurons are saturated so much that the resting firing frequency of middle temporal neurons is interpreted as an actual sensory signal. The effect of this illusion strictly depends on several factors, namely on the receptive field sizes (the illusion changes as a function of viewing distance), V4 preference for spirals and spheres, and the middle temporal involvement in 3D and stereopsis. It is a very complex interaction, that rarely lead to suc ...

School and summer don't mix.

In fact, thinking and summer don't really mix. Yet we don't want to return to school feeling like a lower-IQ version of Keanu Reeves. How to strike a balance?
 
I'm sure you've all had that feeling before: You bust out the first assignment of the new school year, you sit down and grab a pencil, you put that pencil to the paper and you... stare. Gaze. Daydream. Sniffle?
 
"Dude, how is this stuff even remotely difficult?" you say. "It was a piece of cake four months ago."
 
Yeah, then that whole summer thing got in the way. Funny how cruel overexposure to sunlight, fireworks, burnt hot dogs and fried Twinkies can be.
 
Four months off is enough time to forget a semester. Six months will erase a year. And as I found out l ...