If you love puzzles and optical illusions, then you're at the right place. Here's a black and white image that has recently gone viral, asking people to identify the animal hiding behind the stripes.

The image went viral because only 1 percent of people were able to pinpoint the animal, according to studies.

Ever Heard of the McCollough Effect?

McCollough is a weird trick of the mind. After staring at a colored grating (alternating lines), your brain starts to see a pinkish tinge or other colors when looking at black-and-white lines.

It's said that to trigger the effect. You simply stare at the center of two colored "induction images" for a few minutes, switching back and forth repeatedly.

Tilting your head at a 90 degrees angle may lessen or enhance it.

In fact, rotating the induction images and staring at them again may actually reverse the effect. The longer you stare at the original induction images, the longer it'll last.

According to the Journal of Experimental Psychology, the same way the bright flash of the camera can linger in the vision, this effect can last for up to three months in case you stare at the colorful gratings for long.

This phenomenon, defined as a visual illusion in which retinal impressions persist after removing a stimulus, is a sort of afterimage.

Researchers Believe This is a Result of the Continued Activation of the Visual System.

This effect has been named after its discoverer, US psychologist Celeste McCollough Howard. She discovered the "contingent aftereffect," an illusion that affects the brain for an extended period of time.

Over the Years, There Have Been Several Studies Done on this Effect

For instance, back in 1975, two researchers tested five groups consisting of 16 people. Amazingly, one of the groups showed no lessening of the effect after five days.

In fact, the effect remained better than half strength for the other four groups for up to 2,040 hours later—or almost three months.

Researchers have analyzed the cause of these effects. Some believe it's linked to the neurons in the visual cortex. Others claim that your brain tries to color-correct the world and gets a bit stuck.

There's also a third group that argues the effects is a kind of a "withdrawal symptom," in this case, an absence of color.

It's also good to know that our brains are easily fooled. For example, struggling to tell whether lines are parallel or not.

Brains are weird, huh?