Do you see a horse walking forwards or backwards? Optical illusion divides opinion

31 August 2021, 11:56 | Updated: 31 August 2021, 12:02

Whether you see this horse walking forward or backwards supposedly reveals whether you're left or right brained.

A video of a black and white horse has gone viral, after Julia Bradbury claimed it says something about your brain.

According to the TV presenter, whether you see the horse walking forward or backwards shows if you are left or right brained.

Posting the monochrome clip on Twitter, Julia asked her followers: “Left brain or right brain?”

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The theory first came about in the 1960s and suggests that the brain’s left and right hemispheres work in different ways.

Psychobiologist Roger W. Sperry said one side of the brain was likely to be more dominant than the other, suggesting that left-brained people are mostly analytical and methodical in their thinking.

Meanwhile, if you tend to be more creative or artistic, you're thought to be right-brained.

So, if that theory were to be true, if you can see the horse walking forwards you could be more methodical, and if it is walking backwards you have a more creative brain.

However, in recent years scientists have discovered that brain functions are more complex than this, with both sides of the brain thought to be working together.

That hasn’t stopped Julia’s followers discussing what they can see in the video, with one person responding: “For me the front legs are moving backwards and the back legs are moving forward.”

Someone else said: “It seems to me there is no illusion here, you can see from the movement of the legs that the horse is 100% going backwards .”

But a third person pointed out: “The right brain/left brain dichotomy is a bit of a myth; or at least much more complex and nuanced than these things make out.”

Meanwhile, despite the brain theory being widely accepted, according to scientists at Encyclopaedia Britannica, there is no evidence that it is true.

They say: “The idea that there are right-brained and left-brained people is a myth.

“Although we all obviously have different personalities and talents, there’s no reason to believe these differences can be explained by the dominance of one half of the brain over the other half.

“Recent research using brain imaging technology hasn’t found any evidence of right or left dominance.”