Can you see a saxophone player in this image, or a girl’s face?
Your clever brain takes short-cuts and decides what you most likely want to see.
In this optical illusion, your brain makes a decision between the negative and positive light used to create the image. The musician is a silhouette, facing sideways and playing what appears to be a saxophone.
The girl’s face is facing forwards and is starkly lit, with the eyes, nose and mouth in shadow. Her nose and mouth are the musician’s fingers as he plays.
The top of her head is fragmented, making it difficult for your brain to interpret at first glance so you might see the prominent nose of the musician instead.
I saw both images. Interesting how the brain works!!!
Your active brain connections are firing well!
Saw the muscian first and the girl was very clear after I knew to look for her.
I saw a dwarf playing the saxophone
I saw the musician first but the girl appeared very quickly after
I saw the saxophone player first, but I needed to move the phone a bit before I suddenly saw the face.
So I guess I have lost a few connections.
I’m same as Donna but I was interested to see I looked at it first from the left side and then from the right side.
I immediately saw that he was playing a trumpet or horn.
Not really – your brain just identified first what it thought you would want to see first …. that’s exactly why there can be so many different accounts of a motor accident because we pay attention to the aspect the brain decides you want to see first.
The musician being in black makes it prominent but surprisingly some see the lady face first.
Well done! Something others didn’t quite see!
You ‘told’ your brain to find her – and isn’t it wonderful how quickly our brain will respond?
I saw man first but after a blink saw female
Excellent – all working well!
Saw player first, but took a few mins. to see the girl. Thanks.
I didn’t see it was a man playing an instrument, Just a man with his mouth open and the “eye’ as some piece of food. didn’t notice the girl at first.
Took me awhile to find the girl
I instantly saw a woman. ( I thought her face more mature than a girls).
Then I saw a male. I thought it was Dagwood from the comic strip!! I mean that comic strip takes me back to about the 1960’s, my brothers used to read it, but it never rocked my boat! Then I saw the saxaphone. Lovely
Firstly, I saw a woman. (I thought her face more mature than a girls face).
Then I saw a man. It looked like Dagwood from a comic strip to me because of the hairdo. Gosh the Dagwood comic strip takes me back to about the 1960’s My brother’s used to read it, though it never rocked my boat! Then I saw the saxaphone. Lovely
I saw the sax player immediately, and the girl’s face a second later
Isn’t it interesting the way the brain identifies first one then the other? Clever neurons working to interpret the images on very little information. Well done!
There are so many bits of partial information in the image, your brain is busily trying to connect those parts to information you have already stored over the years. Fascinating, isn’t it?
The sax player is a very dominant part of the image so it often takes a while for the brain to ‘see’ the other side. You found her in the end, though!
Straight away the sax player, then the girl’s face. Interesting.
Hi, i had trouble finding anything in a jumble of black and white. Eventually identified the sax player but just can’t get the girl. This is very important to me as I’ve had strokes and a brain injury and still find parts of damaged brain!
The really encouraging news from neuroscience discoveries, though, is that by keeping undamaged brain connections active, new neural pathways will gradually be established. Keep trying with challenges like these!
Is it significant that I saw the woman straight away but couldn’t get the saxophonist till I read the description and then relooked?I often find I do things “ the wrong way round”I am an artist and often wonder if that is why I some ordinary tasks difficult
Sometimes your brain decides what it will see! Your neural pathways will be strongly visual and, as an artist, you will probably be already have been reconstructing the face as if you were going to recreate it yourself. That focus is very important for artists and it will have filtered out the other part of the image. So it isn’t the ‘wrong way round’ – just the way your brain has been trained over the years. Thank you for such an interesting observation …
Well I saw a Bird and then I saw the trumpet player.
Another interesting outcome from this image! I wonder if you did see the lady’s face eventually – sometimes it takes the brain a few seconds to bring together all the features. Have fun!
The image looked at first like an old hag, then sax player.
The girl’s face took a while.
Your brain was working hard to bring together the pieces of information you could see, then connecting them into a recognizable, identifiable image. Well done!
The sax player comes first but I cannot see a female face looking forward. But I can see in white on the left a profile of a female face looking to the right .
The first thing I saw was a gun sideways on the left,then I saw the man with the saxophone and then I saw the lady.
Isn’t it interesting to see how many different ways there are to interpret this image!The brain is amazing.