IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

Are these dots moving? Latest viral optical illusion will give your brain a workout

The 'disappearing dots' in the latest viral optical illusion will have your brain working overtime.
/ Source: TODAY

The latest viral optical illusion features dots jumping around on a gray grid, and it's driving our brains crazy.

But despite how it looks, those dots are not moving at all. Your brain just interprets it that way.

Posted on Twitter by video game developer Will Kerslake and picked up by Mashable, the puzzle features 12 static dots at the intersection of an image. But it's impossible to see all 12 dots at once. Instead, it looks like two or three dots moving around.

For those interested in the science behind the disappearing dots, Kerslake recommended a 2000 paper titled "Variations on the Hermann Grid: An Extinction Illusion" by professors Jacques Ninio and Kent Stevens.

RELATED: The best optical illusions of 2016 will give your brain a workout

"One sees only a few of them at a time, in clusters which move erratically on the page," the study said.

The paper also contains several more optical illusions similar to the one posted by Kerslake, so once you're done rubbing your eyes from the first one, there are plenty more to give your brain a workout.

Follow TODAY.com writer Scott Stump on Twitter.