Over the years, there have been a number of studies done on the effect. Back in 1975, two researchers tested five groups of 16 people and, amazingly, one of the groups showed no lessening of the effect after five days. In fact, the effect remained better than half strength for four groups up to 2,040 hours later – or almost three months.
You can test the effect for yourself, with the images below. Note, there is a chance it can affect your vision for a while – although it only really gets triggered when you see vertical or horizontal lines afterwards. For the most part, it appears to be harmless. Up to you.
So, what’s causing it? Well, there has been some debate about that. There are three main lines of thought, one being that is has something to do with neurons in your visual cortex. Another is that your brain tries to color-correct the world and gets a bit stuck, while a third is that it’s a sort of withdrawal symptom, in this case an absence of color.
