It’s always a good feeling when I find out about a new illusion that I can share on here – this week’s Brainteaser is another about colour after-effects: The Mccullough Effect.
What makes this different to other colour after-effects is that the stimuli used in adaptation is simpler than the final illusion. This effect was discovered by Celeste McCollough in 1965, and involves alternating black and white lines (known as ‘gratings’) which are viewed as coloured after a period of adaptation. Try it for yourselves here:
First, stare at these images for a minute or so then look at the grid below
What you should notice is that these gratings now look coloured, when they are in fact black and white! The vertical lines should look red, whilst the horizontal ones look green.
What is so interesting about these after effects is that unlike others (e.g. here), this effect lasts not just for a few minutes but for hours, or even days. Some studies (e.g. Jones & Holding, 1975) have shown that adaptation for 10 minutes can lead to after effects months later!
Scientists are still not certain which part of the visual system is responsible for this effect or why it is so long-lasting. One theory is that it takes place due to neurons in V1 – the first part of the visual cortex which receives information from the optic nerve via the Lateral Geniculate Nucleus. Only neurons in early visual cortex are sensitive enough for this type of adaptation to occur. A possible reason why this effect lasts for so long could be simply that the adaptation stimulus is rare, so is not seen in the environment for us to de-adapt, whilst others believe this shows a form of associative learning. However, the exact mechanisms are still up for debate.