Our eyes, apparently, are capable of showing us the shapes and colors of the world around us, however, we rarely notice that our brain is a harsh editor which many times cuts off entire sections of the visual field if deemed necessary.
The Troxler Effect (either Troxler dimming effect) was first described in 1804 by the Swiss physician and philosopher Ignaz Paul Vital Troxler. This effect refers to areas of the image that fade in front of your eyes when you focus on the center of the image for about 10 seconds.
What’s the catch (according to neuroscience)?
The explanation is very simple: once your visual circuit adapts to a stimulus (the image), your eyes experience slight vibrations called saccades. This involuntary back and forth occurs when we fix our visual attention on an object for a sustained period.
The consequence of saccadic movements is to locally adapt the visual cells of the retina, so that (as if it were an algorithm) «repeated» information is removed from the panorama. Although there is no conclusive explanation of why this phenomenon occurs, one hypothesis is that the brain filters information that it considers visually irrelevant after observing it for a while in order to perceive new changes in the environment.
Watch how the color gradually disappears:
Keep your eyes on the central cross for about 10 seconds (Image: BigThink)
This ability could have been key when our ancestors observed the homogeneous colors of a forest, a savannah or a mountain, with the same plant life serving as camouflage for predators.
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