Effects turn the face in the mirror into a scary image

When staring in the mirror long enough, you will see your face gradually deform or even become scary things by the Troxler effect.

The sight of the monster in the mirror has long appeared in horror movies or legends. The phenomenon of humans seeing strange images in the mirror is real, caused by an optical illusion called "peripheral fading" or the Troxler effect, according to Mother Nature Network.

In 2010, Giovanni Caputo at the University of Urbino, Italy, published an article about this phenomenon in Perceptions magazine. In his research, Caputo asked 50 volunteers to stare at the mirror for 10 minutes in a dimly lit space.

When staring in the mirror long enough, you will see your face deformed.(Photo: Marla Morri).

The results showed that 66% of volunteers saw large deformations on their faces, 18% saw animals like pigs or cats, 28% saw strangers, 48% observed strange things.

Caputo explained that the volunteers saw strange images in the mirror due to the Troxler effect, named after a Swiss doctor.

In 1804, Ignaz Paul Vital Troxler, a philosopher and doctor, realized that if someone stared at a fixed point for a short time, peripheral images gradually disappeared.

You can experience the Troxler effect when staring at the red dot in the image below. After a certain time, you will see the blue circle around it quickly disappear.

Troxler explained that the Troxler effect occurs because human neuron neuron cells adapt to stimuli that are not important . First, you see everything fully ahead. After that, the eyes began to remove unnecessary things around the point where the eyes were focused on looking.

If you stare at the red dot long enough, you will see the blue circle around disappear.(Photo: Wikimedia).

Troxler effects can also occur in some other nervous systems of the body. For example, when you wear the watch, at first you notice its weight on the wrist and the strap that touches the skin. After a few minutes, this feeling completely disappeared. The watch is still on hand but you no longer feel it.

Similarly, if you stare at a mirror, the periphery of your face may be stretched or disappear. Your mouth is stretched to the side, the forehead is mixed with the cheeks and the eyebrows hang down to the chin.

The Troxler effect can explain the change in shape that Caputo's research objects witness on their own faces. However, researchers still cannot explain why some people see animals, strangers and unusual things.