Supposed Right brain vs Left brain test

[jack]

The link going around is here, from an Australian newspaper. The image shows a silhouette of a dancer rotating in the air. Is it rotating clockwise or anticlockwise?

People seem to see it one way or the other, though most people can swap the way they see it. The paper says it depends on being right-brained or left-brained. There are some analyses floating about from before the paper made the link, but I can't find anything definitive.

Logically, the silhouette *ought* to be perceivable either way -- if there are insufficient depth cues, and you cover up the shadow, it ought to be front-back symmetric. But to me it definitely *looks* clockwise[1].

Can anyone tell if there's anything special about the image? Does anyone know if right/left-brain-ness really has any bearing?

[1] Bonus points for saying "from the top or the bottom". From the top, please.

ETA: No-one finds any support that this has anything to do with left/right brains, that seems to have appeared with the news article. So not necessarily false, but doubtful, given that it has no source.

Comments

[vyvyan.livejournal.com]

She goes clockwise for me, though I can make her go anticlockwise by covering up the top half of her body and just concentrating on her feet and shadow for about 20 seconds - then she goes anticlockwise quite happily for a while, until I stop concentrating, and she switches back to clockwise. It seems to be getting easier with practice: I can make her go anticlockwise for several turns now, while the first time I managed it she only did one turn before switching.