Does the “Right Brain vs. Left Brain” Spinning Dancer Test Work?
- asks Aki from San Francisco
Jeremy Hsu • October 29, 2007
![[Credit: Internet Movie Database]](https://scienceline.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/oz.jpg)
[Credit: Internet Movie Database]
A new “brain test” floating around online shows a spinning dancer and asks whether you see the image rotating clockwise or counterclockwise. If it spins clockwise, you supposedly use more of your right brain. Counterclockwise, and you’re more of a left brain person. The test then lists functions associated with each side of the brain – the left side includes “uses logic” and “facts rule,” while the right side includes “uses feeling” and “imagination rules.”
A good friend complained that the test told her she was a left brain person, even when she knew herself to not be into left brain associations such as “math and science.” A similar discrepancy was discerned by one of the authors of the Freakonomics blog, when he conducted a quick, nonscientific survey of blog readers, which cross referenced college majors and spinning dancer test results.
If the test sounds flawed, that’s not just because one shouldn’t use spinning dancers to characterize their brain strengths. Rather, the test is coming up inaccurate because it provides a crude view of the “lateralization of brain function,” or the concept that each side of the human brain specializes in certain mental activities.
The concept was born in the 1960s, when Roger Sperry studied epilepsy patients who had had a nerve connection between their hemispheres surgically cut. He found that the left brain hemisphere seemed to possess “speech and a rational, intellectual style,” while the right side was “inarticulate, but blessed with special spatial abilities.”
Modern neuroscience studies using brain imaging technology such as fMRI – which shows active areas of the brain while a person is trying to perform a task – have further suggested that language ability tends to be localized in the left hemisphere, while spatial ability tends to be in the right hemisphere.
However, neuroscience-minded blogs like Neurophilosophy point out that doing any complex mental activity requires cooperation from both sides of the brain, although certain processing tasks required for that activity may be concentrated on one side or the other. In other words, saying that “math and science are left brain functions” is an over-generalized statement.
“It’s not that you have a special math module somewhere in your brain, but rather that the brain’s particular functional organization…predisposes it towards the use of high-level imagery and spatial skills, which in turn just happen to be very useful when it comes to doing math reasoning,” said Michael O’Boyle, a psychologist at the University of Melbourne, Australia, in a public statement through the American Psychological Association.
In fact, the best math students don’t even seem to settle for being “left brain” people. A study undertaken by O’Boyle found mathematically gifted students did better than average students on tests that required both halves of the brain to cooperate. This demonstrated that, while the typical person might lean more heavily on one hemisphere or the other to do mental tasks necessary for math calculation, the brightest among us can more fully integrate both hemispheres of the brain.
The idea that emotion processing only occurs in the right brain hemisphere and fact processing in the left is also misleading. Brain imaging studies have showed that people processed emotion using small parts of both brain hemispheres.
“The popular notion of an ‘emotional’ right hemisphere that contrasts sharply with a ‘rational’ left hemisphere is like a crude pencil sketch made before a full-color painting,” noted a 2005 Scientific American Mind article.
Believing in left brain or right brain people also fails to account for the human brain’s mysterious flexibility and plasticity. People who had half their brain removed encounter some problems – like not being able to move or see from one side of their body – but largely retained or relearned mental abilities such as language in their remaining brain hemisphere. All this research clearly points out that while Nobel winner Sperry was onto something with his lateralization research, trying to fully compartmentalize mental activity by brain hemisphere is imprecise.
So what does the spinning dancer tell us? The whole test is more of an optical illusion than anything else, according to Steven Novella, an academic clinical neurologist at Yale University School of Medicine who blogs on NeuroLogica. When our brains process visual images to make some order or sense of the world, they have to make assumptions. The dancer is just a two dimensional image switching back and forth, but our brains process it as a three dimensional spinning object.
Depending on the assumptions made and visual cues picked up, your brain can make the dancer spin either way. When my friend first sent the test to me, I saw it go clockwise…then switch to counterclockwise as I was staring at the screen. What this tells me about my personality and mental abilities is hardly a no-brainer – the brain test connection to our mental strengths and weaknesses is nonexistent.
172 Comments
it all depends on where you statring at the time. when the thighs line up and what your thinking will determine what dorestion. CRAZY!
I first saw the dancer spinning clockwise, then after looking away for a few seconds I could see her spinning counterclockwise. Just for the record, I’m ambidextrous.
Johnny
To switch her direction, realize that you have to switch your image of what foot is held outward. close your eyes and believe that her left foot is held out and the image will switch.
When her right foot is out she will spin clockwise, if you can imagine her left foot out she will spin counterclockwise
Hey, whatever. Nice legs.
i tried for like an hour to make her move anti clockwise and all i could see was her going clockwise then my 6 yo sis came in and moved her finger the way she saw and i concentrated on both and her finger changeed direction and hey presto the dancer changed i still cant do it just in my head but if i move my finger anticlockwise the whole time the dancer changes there you go!!!!!
I have taken many tests to determine which side of my brain is dominant. I’m positive it is right in my case. The spinning dancer confirms it as well. However, a person may experience a different result depending on the conditions at the time the test. Looking at her bottom foot and shadow triggers a flip because you are looking for logic/reason to explain what you see, failing to find it your brain tries different approach. Closing your eyes works too, since one side of the brain is visual and the other is imaginary.
You can actually train yourself to flip the spin as you like on demand without looking at her feet or closing your eyes.
I think we can say this illusion is NOT a definitive diagnosis of whether or not you are right or left brain oriented.
However… it can be a useful tool to lead you into more testing and further research into who you are, and what your strengths & weaknesses may be.
I’ve always heard that humans use about 10% of their brain capacity, so there’s a lot of wasted power from the start. Divide that between 2 hemispheres of the brain, and VOILA! More laziness. Put 2 people on one task, and one will always end up doing more work than the other.
As for myself, I’ve taken IQ tests over the years, and the results show I am definitely a right-brained person with an IQ in the 130-140 range. They say I’m a “Visual Mathematician.”
I see the dancer spinning clockwise, but with extreme brain effort and lots of coffee, I can make her go counter-clockwise. Thanks!
This was a nice diversion. The dancer was spinning in a circle counterclockwise at first and continued for several spins until I read that it could go the other way-then she changed directions. After a moment she stopped spinning and just went back and forth not making a complete turn. I wondered what happened till I found this blog. What does it mean if she can go either way or side to side at will? Making her do this gave me a slightly dizzy feeling after several minutes. It was interesting and fun.
Wow – I had her rolling around on the floor with me and going in both directions. Oh wait a minute – was that my second or third glass of wine?
Stare at her long enough and a magical pole appears and she begins a very naughty routine….yea dancer!
I was going crazy because I could only see it spinning clockwise. Then, I took Lucky’s advice and tried lowering my head down below the screen:
“then I put my head down nearer to the keyboard till the image became more dark and when I looked up… voila… there was a CHANGE in movement. It happens every time I do it.
I think it has something to do with the light. Nice tricky perception.”
When my head is below the monitor and I look up at the dancer, I see it spinning counter clockwise. If I look at it straight on, I see it spinning clockwise. Amazing! And if I bob my head up and down, it’s like she she switches direction mid-circle and only rotates back and forth 180 degrees. Cool optical illusion.
I doubt that the generalization is very accurate, as this article describes. I’m supposed to be right brained and creative…I wish! In high school, I used to be good in art…but only at replicating other pictures. If I ever had to create anything, it was usually pretty derivative, or crappy. If I’m not left brained, and I’m not right brained, maybe I’m no-brained! Perhaps that is the reason for the monkey sitting on my shoulder telling me what to do…another banana?!
So are there scientific reasons why some people tend to see it one way more, and other people tend to see it the other way? Does it have anything to do with our brain functions, even if it is not as simple as a left-brain right-brain divide? I’d be curious to learn more about the science behind how this visual illusion works.
(Also, even if the left-brain right-brain characterization is an over-simplification, could it have SOME influence on how we see the dancer?)
maybe you could try staring at its shadow then realise that the shadow is just coming in and out of the picture, then somehow put that thought onto the dancer itself by slowly moving up. then you can do this by lowering your eyes to the shadow everytime her foot reaches to the edge of the picture, you might find her just going back and forth too…not rotating…however, according to elizabeth, the picture might be buggy, which is true, leading to some of us actually visualising the line down her thigh. i think.
Who cares she can dance for me anytime.
Kenny, Put down the Cheetos.
Jeff, no couch dances
The characteristics of the left and right brain may be accurate but ido believe that the control the brain has over movement such as body parts and sight may be inverted or reversed such as the left side of the brain controls the right arm and right brain the left arm. My wife had an injury in her left frontal cortex and her right arm,side, and leg had suffered because of it. I believe that counter-clockwise is right brained and clockwise is left when viewing the dancing illusion. Clockwise may come naturally viewed as moving right which may be controlled by left brain. I remember reading some things like this in pysch 101. I may be wrong.
Hi Jeremy
I always think its good to question but in the same way that the dancing lady may not prove the truth about how our brain works, you can’t really use it as a basis for discrediting theories on how it does work! What matters most I believe is the effective use of ones brain and continously exploring new ways of thinking. Knowing exactly how it works and proving or disproving theories about how it work is not as important. Afterall even the cave man was able to use his brain to some degree and had no idea how it worked. So lets not get caught up in arguing about the workings of an organ that is constantly evolving and lets instead focus on how to use it better!
For me, I can make the dancer switch at will. If I want her to spin counter-clockwise (left-brain), I read something on my computer screen, and in a second or 2, she’s spinning counter-clockwise.
If I want her to spin clockwise (right-brain), I try to be more “visual” and try to notice the different shades of color around the picture or notice other color things, and in a second or 2, she’s spinning clockwise.
I think it’s really neat. It always works like that for me..
Ok, disregard that last post. I can switch it by just looking at the shadow of her foot at the bottom. I guess it’s just an optical illusion..
Same as David K.’s first comment: as I started reading thetext on the website, the dancer suddenly started to sping counter-clockwise.
After walking away and comind back, I mindlessly looked at the screen and she was going clockwise again. Started typing-switched to counter-clockwise….and so on.
I can’t look at her foot, though…if I do, she “stops spinning” and it’s as if i was looking at a statue from different angles.
It’s a really really nice optical illusion!
For me the dancer wasn’t spinning at all..It looked more like it was doing the can can. it just flipped back and fourth and back and fourth.
it’s all in the shadow! :) And she is gorgeous (the model, not the shadow) Counterclockwise
Very strange! At my initial look the dancer appeared to be going clockwise, but on my second counter-clockwise. After seeing it the second time, I coud not perceive it going clockwise anymore, I had already conditioned my expectations to interpret the movement.
Alright the way to see both clockwise and anti-clockwise is to look at the dancers reflection at the bottom of the screen. At first the dancer appeared to be clockwise and then i glanced at the reflection and looked at her feet move differently, then she was moving anti-clockwise
I have always considered me a bit more “left brained”.
But the dancer did spin clockwise! I tried to think about her spinning the other way, but it didn’t work. But yesterday, I checked it up again; and now she was spinning anti-clockwise!
Its a really cool illusion, but as you said, I dont think it tells us much about our brain.
This is a really cool illiusion. One of the best I’ve seen really. I naturally see it clockwise and could find no way to see it anti-clockwise. If you’re the same (or if you’re the opposite, try the inverse): cover the bottom half, look away so it’s in the corner of your eye and tell yourself it’s going anti clockwise. If that doesn’t work, trace her higher moving foot with your finger on the screen. Notice it’s an oval? Now you see the foot moving in one direction. Imagine though, instead of the foot being at a high point when away from you, it’s at a high point when closest to you. Tell yourself: no, it’s actually a high point when it’s close to me, it’s moving anti-clockwise. You should then see it moving anti-clockwise with some concentration.
I’m glad this test isn’t accurate, when I watched her, she kept changing direction every couple of rotations, I was getting motion sickness…but worse than that, I was starting to think I was a bit of a headcase because no one else at my work had the same reaction!
I can make her switch to CCW but it makes me feel a bit nauseous & slightly paranoid – uncomfortable. but when she pirouettes CW it becomes soothing.
Maybe it would make a difference if she was a bit more modest and put some clothes on – perhaps an XXL burka would make her look like a sphere which would then stop all the spinning.
How can I draw my own illusion?
does somebody know?
After looking at this I 1st saw the dancer spinning clockwise but as I was reading the text to the left I became aware the dancer was going counter clock.
Then I found that if I look to the bottom right corner of the picture of the spinning dancer and focus on the corner I can think which way I want to see her & mostly when I look back she is spinning that way. This can be within a second or two. I really have to clear my mind to do this though.
The amusing thing to me is that she changes from being on her right leg to her left leg – that part kind of caught my attention.
I do find it very easy to bring her back to clockwise & often only need to glance at her feet.
Doug M
I can only see her waving her leg from left to right and the same with her hands. I find it extremely difficult to ‘make’ her spin clockwise and when she does spin in any way it’s usually anti-clockwise.
But it’s usually just the girl waving her hand and leg in a semicircle from left to right in the background of the image for me.
i saw it clockwise first for like a couple secs but when i blinked it went CCW and it couldnt change back!!!! lol!!!!
I looked at the illusion and to me it seemed to be moving in both directions alternatively.. I could make her move in any direction at any time.. Does that mean anything? :)
wow i looked at it for a second i saw her spin counter clockwise then clockwise and the counter clockwise and so on..in seconds..hope shes not tired lol
I never thought it was really about brains. But I do come up with a logic explanation that seems to persuade most of my fellows here. The link is:
http://hi.baidu.com/spacetimer/blog/item/39ae90dd89f432315882dd27.html
Actually, It kinda makes some sense. You see, they say that the left brain makes you think logically bla bla etc. So, only when focusing on the image, you can see it turn anti clockwise. but, if you look at it without focusing, like fidgeting around, it just turns clockwise.
Am I the only one that thinks this dancer has a smokin body? Just keep spinning tiny dancer, keep spinning.
I think that the brain dominance thing is a hoax. when you look at the knee of her fixed feet, it seems that the moving feet is just swaying not really rotating. then you could make her move to your desired direction
if you use your mouse wheel and move the dancer out of view and then quickly bring it back into view the dancer will change direction
As a drummer it is important to have the left/right thing going on without thinking about it. Personally I found it quite easy to see the rotation in either direction with the ability to also perform half turns then have the direction change (ie never actually perform a full turn). This gives full control and obviously the ability to quickly change from left to right and right to left sides of the brain in a split second.
It’s one of the best brain exercises I’ve seen in a long time.
Sure the animation is not perfect however there is also nothing wrong with only being able to see one direction – it’s simply a guide to which side of the brain is more dominant. Even I tend to see it clockwise if tired or get distracted.
I will agree with Darryl. As an artist/designer I am required to have control and upon first glance the dancer appeared counter clockwise however, the more dominant side of my personality saw her clockwise for a longer period of time.
it clearly spins counter clockwise, but after focusing on the head just before the gif image rotates 360 deg you’ll see her spinning clockwise. but i only see this clockwise spin for 1-2 secs. then as the gif restarts rotating again the only spin i see is counter clockwise. you may try focusing on the leg first then on the head to see the 2 spins
accepting the view as is the image is clearly spinning counter-clockwise to me, but I can view it going clockwise too if I concentrate. And make it “switch” back and forth. I can do the same thing with a ceiling fan. Sceptism input from other people I showed this to however points to a “clever programmer” who’s randomly programmed the image to actually change directions in a way too subtle for the eye to detect. And guess what? The sceptics in question are left-brain ruled.
I was tested as a kid and found to be left brained. When I looked at the dancer it was spinning anti-clockwise and no matter how I looked at it, it would not change direction. But once I started to read the list she suddendly changed to clockwise. I then got it to switch every time by using my peripheral vision. I now firmly believe this is an S.E.P. (Somebody Else’s Problem). I also feel sick from staring at it for too long.
Intriguing quesion,
I received the link http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22535838-5012895,00.html
At first I only saw her turn counterclockwise and as a nonbeliever started to google critically for other reviews.
I found the website https://scienceline.org/2007/10/29/ask-hsu-spinning-girl-right-left-brain-hemispheres/
As a nonbeliever I had to agree with reaction 25, who only perceived counterclockwise rotation.
Reaction 31 suggests a clue, but I don’t get it.
Reaction 24 gives a useful link which learned me the trick to see her turn both way’s!
http://anuragworld.googlepages.com/mysteryofthespinningdancer. It turned me into a believer!!
But there’s more:
In both cases the heel of only one foot touches the ground periodically:
When she’s turning clockwise it is her left foot.
When she’s turning counterclockwise it is her right foot.
At that moment:
When she’s turning clockwise- her toes point away from us.
When she’s turning clockwise her toes point towards us.
Here it comes:
When she’s turning counterclockwise you can see the underneath the foot she’s standing on. She tends to fall backwards.
When she’s turning clockwise you cannot see the underneath the foot. (almost you can).
Wheather she’s an animation or a flat projection of a real dance, it must be a matter of perspective.
I tend to believe the leg she’s spinning on should be oriented vertically.
Seen from aside, her foot makes an angle of about 15 degrees with the floor.
As we can see onto the top of her head the spectators eye must be at least 1m60 above the floor.
This means that -based on clockwise motion- the camera must be about 6m away of the point where the heel touches the
ground. Assuming we confuse the orientation of the toes, and a horizontal space of 30cm between heel and toes, it is now
possible to estimate the angle her foot makes with the floor for the counterclockwise motion.
This is 43 degrees! Not even after years of molestration a dancers foot can do that.
I apologize for the rigid approach while it really doesn´t matter (the boobs are great!).
If I would have to choose what the “right” direction is,
my answer would be :clockwise (in contrast to my initial impression)
Try this.
Look at the dancer upside down!
I suspect this is re-affirming the argument of right brain or left brain dominance.
I assume…the brain is still seeing the direction of spin as it was seeing it when the image was upright.
WARNING! A computer monitor is heavy and it does get hard to hold and be sure to check that ALL your computer leads are long enough.
:)
Bull shit.
The image has perspective ( not orthogonal projection ).
The person who thinks it is turning counter-clockwise, their brain or eyes have defects.
When I took off my glasses, I could see counter-clockwise. But as long as I notice the perspective, it is spinning clockwise.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perspective_(graphical)
Ut oh. What does it mean if you don’t see the dancer spinning at all? Does it mean I don’t use my brain at all????
Oh noooooo
Guess I better go stare at it some more instead of working. lol
All that being said, I do beleive personally that the right brain – left brain beleif is valid as I see myself, graphic design student, could never do math, and not only that its that whenever I try i feel some sort of disconnect and frusration. I listen with my left here and am seen as an emotion person.
Its just freekishly wierd how all the left brain vs. right brain criteria match up, so i beleive.
One thing that happend that just freeked me out!!!
I was watching the dancer going clockwise for a number of minutes, couldnt get it to go counter..
I watched it through my left eye [left eye gos to right brain and vice versa] I proceeded to close my left eye and then watched it go counter clockwise through my right eye!!
Excuse the exitement but this just happend and it freeked me out!!!
Also one thing I found interesting is that when I was reading an essat, very insightfull I found that I was leading with my right eye, maybe partially due that we write from left to right but mainly due to the left part of my brain trying to decode logical Ideas, you can feel your right side reading..wohever wierd that sounds.
Also I create music at home, I have also noticed then when I listen criticly to my songs I tilt my head so my left hear gets focus and this was before I know og that fact..
This topic just got me so exited!