Who doesn't love a good ol' optical illusion?
Well, it's that time of the year again when social media users are attempting to stump each other with a tricky image that's supposed to get your brain juices flowing. (However, in reality, the answer is actually much more simple than you may think.)
Shared to social media sites like Reddit and Twitter, this particular viral image shows a tiger standing in a jungle.
With the beast surrounded by trees and bamboo, social media users are being tasked with finding "the hidden tiger".
The Sun reports that those who successfully spot the hidden tiger are "in the top 1%" - although, details of what exactly you're in the "top 1%" for aren't provided. Perhaps we're all in the top 1% of people with far too much time on their hands?
Well, before you strain your eyes looking at the screen, I'll just tell you that you're not actually looking for another tiger in the image. Rather, the answer is more word-based.
These Twitter users were all winners:
Yes, as you can see from the tweet above, the challenge is actually quite literal - as you're actually looking for the words 'THE HIDDEN TIGER' spelled out in the tiger's stripes.
Although, as simple as the answer may appear - not everybody hit the nail on the head:
I literally have no idea what that guy is talking about...
However, although challenges like this may seem like just a bit of fun we can have while we're scrolling on the toilet, optical illusions can have a pretty important role in our lives.
In an interview with the National Eye Institute, Dr. Matt McMahon explains that optical illusions like the one above are "really valuable tools for scientists to use to understand how your eyes and your brain help to make sense of the outside world.
Indeed, illusions like the one above are more than just simple parlor tricks.
Per ABC News, Michael Bach, a vision scientist and professor of neurobiophysics at the University of Freiburg Eye Hospital in Freiburg, Germany, explains: "They widen the mental horizons and make it clear that things are a little different than they seem."
Additionally, Susana Martinez-Conde, director of the laboratory of visual neuroscience at Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona, says: "They're important tools in visual research to help us understand how visual processing works in the normal brain and also in the diseased brain."
