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If the viewer stares at this image for 20-60 seconds and stares at a white object a negative afterimage will appear (in this case being cyan on magenta). This can also be achieved by the viewer closing his/her eyes and tilting their head up.

An afterimage or ghost image or image burn-in is an optical illusion that refers to an image continuing to appear in one's vision after the exposure to the original image has ceased. One of the most common afterimages is the bright glow that seems to float before one's eyes after looking into a light source for a few seconds.^{[citation needed]}

Closing the eye can help achieve a better sense of the color in its own aspect.^{[citation needed]}

Afterimages come in two forms, negative (inverted) and positive (retaining original color). The process behind positive afterimages is unknown, though thought to be related to neural adaptation. On the other hand, negative afterimages are a retinal phenomenon and are well understood.^{[citation needed]}

Negative afterimages[link]

Negative afterimages are caused when the eye's photoreceptors, primarily those known as cone cells, adapt from the overstimulation and lose sensitivity.^[1] Normally the eye deals with this problem by rapidly moving small amounts (see: microsaccade), the motion later being "filtered out" so it is not noticeable. However if the color image is large enough that the small movements are not enough to change the color under one area of the retina, those cones will eventually tire or adapt and stop responding. The rod cells can also be affected by this.^{[citation needed]}

When the eyes are then diverted to a blank space, the adapted photoreceptors send out a weak signal and those colors remain muted. However, the surrounding cones that were not being excited by that color are still "fresh", and send out a strong signal. The signal is exactly the same as if looking at the opposite color, which is how the brain interprets it.^{[citation needed]}

Ewald Hering explained how the brain sees afterimages, in terms of three pairs of primary colors. This opponent process theory states that the human visual system interprets color information by processing signals from cones and rods in an antagonistic manner. The opponent color theory suggests that there are three opponent channels: red versus cyan, blue versus yellow, and black versus white. Responses to one color of an opponent channel are antagonistic to those to the other color. Therefore, a green image will produce a magenta afterimage. The green color tires out the green photoreceptors, so they produce a weaker signal. Anything resulting in less green, is interpreted as its paired primary color, which is magenta.^{[citation needed]}

240px Example movie which produces distortion illusion after one watches it and looks away. See Motion aftereffect.^{[citation needed]}

Afterimage on empty shape[link]

A snapshot of the "color dove illusion"

An afterimage in general is an optical illusion that refers to an image continuing to appear after exposure to the original image has ceased. Prolonged viewing of the colored patch induces an afterimage of the complementary color (for example, yellow color induces a bluish afterimage). "After image on empty shape" effect is related also to a class of effects related to Contrast effect.^{[citation needed]}

In this effect, an empty (white) shape is presented on a colored background for several seconds. When the background color disappears (becomes white) an illusionary color, similar to the original background is perceived within the shape.^{[citation needed]} The mechanism of the effect is still unclear, and may be produced by one or two of the following mechanisms:^{[citation needed]}

• During the presentation of the empty shape on a colored background, the colored background induces an illusionary complementary color "Induced Color" inside the empty shape (i.e. bird). After the disappearance of the colored background an afterimage of the "Induced Color" might appear inside the "empty shape". Thus, the expected color of the shape will be complementary to the "Induced Color", and therefore similar to the color of the original background.^{[citation needed]}
• After the disappearance of the colored background, an afterimage of the background is induced. This induced color has a complementary color to that of the original background. It is possible that this background afterimage induces simultaneous contrast on the "empty shape". Simultaneous contrast is a psychophysical phenomenon of the change in the appearance of a color (or an achromatic stimulus) caused by the presence of a surrounding average color (or luminance).^{[citation needed]}

The perceived empty shape effect could also be derived due to both mechanisms.^{[citation needed]}

Medical conditions[link]

In a visual disturbance called palinopsia, patients have an increased propensity for seeing afterimages, both as a reduced amount of time required to form an afterimage, and an increased duration of the afterimage. Positive afterimages are particularly noticeable, such that even routine eye movement is often accompanied by flickers of what the eye has scanned over the hill (called "tracers"). However, increased negative afterimages are also experienced by palinopsia sufferers. It is unknown if the negative afterimages encountered in palinopsia are formed by the same process described above, although what little research that exists regarding the phenomena suggests that it is brain-related, and not eye-related. Palinopsia can be a persistent condition, but it is also experienced periodically by migraine sufferers.^{[citation needed]}

Gallery[link]

• US flag(inverted).svg

  The US flag inverted

• 

  The Italian flag inverted

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  An inverted and contrasted image of Che Guevara

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  A type of optical illusion, representing Jesus Christ

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  Portrait of Pierre Cardin with Sylvana Lorenz in the background

See also[link]

• Book of Optics
• Lilac chaser
• Motion aftereffect
• Neural adaptation
• Screen burn-in
• Visual perception

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• The Palinopsia Foundation is dedicated to increasing awareness of palinopsia, to funding research into the causes, prevention and treatments for palinopsia, and to advocating for the needs of individuals with palinopsia and their families.
• Eye On Vision Foundation Raises Money and Awareness for persistent visual conditions
• Afterimages, a small demonstration.
• 23 Afterimage Examples
• BMW creates an Afterimage of its logo for a Cinema Advertisement