This wild optical illusion from social media creator Dean Jackson—who goes by @beatonthebeeb—has been grabbing people’s attention by turning a plain black-and-white image into a scene that almost explodes with colour. You’ll see a horse surrounded by sunflowers and cobblestones, and the trick relies on something called retinal fatigue.
To get the effect, you stare right at the horse’s eye while a trippy colour overlay flashes for about a minute. When the overlay vanishes, your brain jumps in to “fill” the colour, and for a few seconds, the image looks shockingly real and vibrant—people often can’t believe it.
The Science Behind the Illusion
Our visual system is usually pretty good at figuring out light and colour, but sometimes it gets fooled. Retinal fatigue is at the heart of Jackson’s illusion, and it happens when certain colour receptors in your eye—those cones—get a bit worn out after staring at strong colours for too long.
By blasting the black-and-white photo with bold, unnatural colours like blue sunflowers and other weird shades, the cones that notice those colours start to tune out and lose sensitivity.
How Retinal Fatigue Creates False Colour
Once the intense overlay disappears, those tired cones don’t process light as they should. Your brain tries to fill in the gaps with what it “thinks” should be there, and suddenly, you see a full-colour image that isn’t really there.
This false colour doesn’t last—blink, and it’s gone. Even just moving your eyes will break the illusion, and the colours fade fast. For a split second, though, your mind and reality are out of sync in a pretty wild way.
Why This Illusion Stands Out
Jackson’s sunflower-and-horse trick really pops because it mixes familiar nature scenes with weird, unnatural colours. That combo makes the transformation feel even more dramatic.
People often call the experience “startling” or “surreal,” and some say the colours look almost too vivid to be real. It’s a neat reminder of how easily our brains can be thrown off by just the right sensory input.
Viewer Reactions
Here’s what folks keep saying about it:
- They see sudden, intense bursts of colour on the black-and-white image.
- The colours vanish the second they blink.
- It’s honestly surprising how real the colours look, even if just for a moment.
- People walk away feeling curious about how their brains actually build up what they see.
Optical Illusions and Brain Science
Optical illusions like this aren’t just party tricks—they give us a peek into how our brains handle what we see. Even though scientists have studied colour vision for years, there’s still a lot we don’t get about how the brain puts together signals from the eyes.
These illusions really show the push and pull between our eye’s physical structure and the brain’s expectations and guesses.
Why Research Matters
Understanding how we see isn’t just for fun. Insights into retinal behaviour and how the brain steps in can help in areas like:
- Medical research on visual disorders
- Better imaging tech
- Designing augmented and virtual reality
- Human–computer interaction
Final Thoughts
Dean Jackson’s clever use of retinal fatigue turns a basic black-and-white photo into a burst of color. There’s no fancy tech here—just the brain doing its own wild thing.
It’s honestly fascinating. Reality isn’t always what it seems, right? Our senses and brains are in a constant tug-of-war, each adding their own spin to what we think we see.
For scientists and curious folks, this illusion is both fun and thought-provoking. By looking at these quick flashes of fake color, researchers get a little closer to understanding just how our minds mess with what’s in front of us.
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Here is the source article for this story: Optical illusion shows black and white image in colour – but only on 1 occasion