"Hollow Mask Illusion" and Autism

Post Reply New Topic

The mask only looks hollow for a second as it rotates between the inside and outside. As soon as the eyes and nose are visible it looks like a normal face, even if I blink fast.

The dancer was rotating only to the right until I concentrated on the shadows of her feet, now she appears to be rotating to the left and I can't make it switch back. Which direction is the non-illusory one?

The Dancer is supposed to test one's brain hemisphere dominance.

The illusion is the dancer spinning fully in either direction. The reality is that the dancer is moving back and forth equally in both directions repetitively and not fully spinning in either direction.

When I look at the picture she turns clockwise, an indicator of left brain dominance, But if I read the text above the picture she turns counter-clockwise.

I can change it at will by looking at the picture, with some effort, but cannot do it while reading the text above the picture.

I've seen it many times before and have always seen it spinning dominantly clockwise, but never saw it in a post like this where I was reading first and then saw the picture. I was shocked to see it spinning counterclockwise initially, without willing it counter clockwise, but I guess it was because I saw it while focused on reading, for the first time.

My brain can't make up its mind which side is dominant...she changes direction regularly to me lol.

Then again those tests that are supposed to measure brain hemisphere dominance say that I use both sides of my brain equally and that neither side is dominant, so...not sure if the tests are accurate or not though.

I saw a convex face facing me, then as it turned, I saw the empty hollow at first, and after it was turned 180º the convex face jumped out at me, then went hollow as it continued turning. I saw it that way every time-- so I guess I've got both.

For the record, I'm somewhat face-blind, don't recognize people when they're "in the wrong place" or have changed hair color or style or facial hair (for men, duh), so I apparently rely on more cues than the shape of the face. Then when I was tested on what emotions are being expressed with all the cues removed, (couldn't even guess the face as male or female) I flunked miserably on emotions. I knew I had trouble with faces, but didn't know it was _that_ bad! I could tell a smile from a frown and that was about it. Of course with people in the flesh I have a lot more clues about the emotion.

I saw two different versions of that dancer: one had the picture flashing, as if she were dancing in a strobe light, while with the other she was moving smoothly, like a video. With the flashing version, I couldn't tell what direction she was turning, or even _if_ she was turning, while with the smooth version, I could see her change direction.

Not that it means anything, in this informal survey. But I think it is interesting that the poll that was right at 75/25%, last year when it died out and was revived this year has stayed almost exactly the same through additional responses to the poll.

Not seeing the illusion is rare in the general population.

And regarding faceblindness, I remember someone suggesting that it might be related to faceblindness in one of the articles I read, but I don't think any serious research has been done in this area to see if there is an actual association.

Seconded.

I've watched it half a dozen times and it still does this.

I see the dancer spinning in one direction, then if I stare for a few seconds she then spins in the other direction. What direction I see first is also random. Don't quite know what that means.

I can see the mask illusion and switch back and forth at will.

That damn dancer. I can only she her spinning counter clockwise. Only ONCE did I force myself to see her spinning in the opposite directon and I had to squint real hard and lean far far to the left of the screen and I couldn't maintain it for very long. I'm painfully left handed.

I would have thought more on the spectrum wouldn't see the "illusion," ahd. There have been other illusions posted on this board in that I was fooled, but the others saw through it.... and this all corelated with autism. I'd guess there are different aspects of visual cognition that are affected.

I have always suspected my visual processing is acutely tuned to details. There are threads here started on the meaning of "detail oriented processing" and its association with autism, and according to other posters' experience in this, I fall into it myself. This may seem to be mutually exclusive with ADD, but it's not in my case.

I think the fact that I'm near a schizophrenic spectrum by 'blood' is incidental to this, because my ADD comes from the other side. But who knows.

I think schizophrenics are bonafide NT's until the break with reality, but a pre-comprehensive brain image may show other wise........ there may be some faceblindless and other anomalies with this..IDK... Only guess work until a real Star Trek type sick bay bed has evolved; you lie down and it shows your complete biological status; " Bones" runs a tri-corder and the spinning salt shaker and you are DX ed ....LoL.

I see the dancer spinning to the left/clockwise. I can't make her go the other way.

Brain scans come up unremarkable in many individuals with Autism, so there is really no definitive way of knowing what the specific differences in neurology of individuals with autism is as opposed to individuals that have no disorder at all. There are structural differences in the brain associated with some cases of schizophrenia and autism that can be shown from birth, but no clear causation.

So whatever it is about neurology that is different among many people diagnosed with autism, is assumed through subjective analysis of behavior, assumed to be present from birth.

I think there is as much evidence through genetic association for autism as there is for schizophrenia that there are neurological differences in both, just no way of defining precisely what it is about the neurology that is different.

Neither Aspergers or Schizophrenia presents itself behaviorally from birth, but per you star trek analogy, science has no definitive evidence at this point in time what the actual neurological differences are in either disorder, either at birth or when the disorders present themselves later.

So, I suggest there is no current way of determining "bonafide" typical neurology in any individual in the population, at most a hypothesis of neurology based on behavior and/or unremarkable findings in Brain Scans.

These diagnoses are human constructs, more than they are representative of actual measured physiology. With just the right mix of genetics and environment, I don't see what is stopping a human being from having characteristics of many disorders that are neatly packaged in categories from human observation and testing.

So, I think one could be part of many different spectrums of disorders and perhaps belong to no specific spectrum per diagnosis, because all the full criteria isn't met for any specific disorder. I don't think I could put the complexity of that into words.

To me from your description of your various associated symptoms, it sounds like you may fit in such a place, along with your ADD diagnosis.

But to come full circle, for all the hard science folks that make jabs at the science of psychology, without it all we would have is complexity and confusion, in understanding human differences associated with neurological differences.

Interesting Indeed.

TheSunAlsoRises

Me too. Since I know what to look for, I can see how others could see a normal face, but I still perceive it as inverted when I see it.

The first video, of the computer generated mask, when it got fully turned 180 degrees it popped out sort of and looked like a face, but it looked a little weird. If I paused it there and really looked at it, I could tell it was convex/concave in the wrong places to be a face. The Chaplin mask only looked like a face for that split second when it was fully turned 180 degrees. The dancer at first played choppy and I saw her turn left, then turn right...she didn't spin all the way around the axis in one direction. Then when it started to play smoothly I only saw her spinning to the right.