Have you ever seen an optical illusion? They normally are pictures that look like they’re moving, even though they’re actually staying still. We’ve found an optical illusion that does something even better than move: this one lets you see your brain waves!

Look at this shape out of the corner of your eye to see your brain waves!

If you look at this wheel-shaped picture, you probably won’t see anything special at all. However if you look away so you can just see the shape out the corner of your eye (called your peripheral vision), you might see something happen. Do you see a circle grow from the centre of the wheel, getting bigger until it’s the same size as the wheel? You’ve just seen your brainwaves!

A study that was published in The Journal of Neuroscience this month says that that moving pattern you can see is a visual representation of what’s called an ‘alpha wave’, which is the electrical force that is always working in your brain.

Pretty cool, huh?