Designer of optical illusion describes its purpose, and whether it can tell if you’re stressed
Apparently, I’m mad stressed
Okay, so there’s this gnarly optical illusion that can reportedly tell whether you’re stressed or not. It told me I was having a mental breakdown.
First spied on Twitter, the optical illusion looks like a wormhole made from little purple, black, and white pentagons. Most of the colours are purple, but a floating ball is a darker red.
“This image, prepared by a Japanese neurologist, stays still when you remain calm but starts moving the moment you feel stress or pressure!” the caption reads.
Bir Japon nörolog tarafından hazırlanan bu görüntü, sakin kaldığınızda hareketsiz duruyor ancak stres veya baskı hissettiğiniz anda hareket etmeye başlıyor! pic.twitter.com/087PJBe4TQ
— tanık (@tanik_tr) April 29, 2026
On one Twitter post, it had recieved half a million views, but countless variations are popping up on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
“I’ll check the clock every hour, it’s spinning right now but it spins even when I’m not looking, it’s spinning below while I’m writing this, if it’s a joke it’s not funny,” one person replied.
Another panicked with: “IT WONT STOP MOVING WHY WONT IT STOP MOVI-.”
The designer of the optical illusion is stressed himself
According to the BBC, this optical illusion has been circulating on the internet since at least 2018.
“This still image was created by Yamamoto, a Japanese neurology professor, and he told the instructions below,” the original post read. “If it’s not moving, or just moving a little, you are healthy and have slept well. If it’s moving slowly, you are a bit stressed or tired. If it’s moving continuously, you are over-stressed and might have mental problems.”
But here’s the thing: The whole thing is complete rubbish. Yurii Perepadia, a 50-year-old designer from Oleksandriya in Ukraine, created the original piece of art. He designed it in 2016 and it took roughly two hours to make, he told the BBC.
“I first saw this fake post on Facebook and then they began to appear everywhere,” he said. “It annoyed me. After all, it was copyright infringement. So I wrote letters demanding the removal of the posts.”
Yurii initially had posts taken down, but that was nearly a decade ago, and they’re still going strong.
“I drew this optical illusion in Adobe Illustrator on September 26, 2016,” he added in an Instagram post. “To create it, I used the effect of Akiyoshi Kitaoka. This is a white and black stroke on a coloured background… which sets in motion the focus of vision and it seems to a person that the details of the image are moving.”
To be fair, I don’t think you really need an optical illusion to tell you you’re stressed.
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Featured image credit: Yurii Perepadia/Twitter
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