What can you see after staring at this image of a light bulb?

After staring at this image for 25 seconds, you should be able to see a glowing light bulb. Photo / Supplied

You may have already seen this optical illusion doing the rounds on social media, but it has come about again after it was shared online.

The brain teaser is of an illustrated, black and white light bulb designed to fool the mind.

All you need to do is stare at the light bulb for 25 seconds, then immediately stare at a blank white wall and wait for a mysterious illusion to appear.

What do you see?

For some it may take a few goes, but eventually you should see a glowing light bulb, according to the site, Optics4Kids.

So, how exactly do our brains decipher optical illusions?

Firstly, optical illusions can use colour, light and patterns to trick the mind.

"The information gathered by the eye is processed by the brain, creating a perception that in reality, does not match the true image," the site reads.

"Optical illusions occur because our brain is trying to interpret what we see and make sense of the world around us. Optical illusions simply trick our brains into seeing things which may or may not be real."

According to illusions.org our brains decipher negative and positive images in an interesting way.

A similar process is seen in the optical illusion of a black and white of the Queen.

After staring at this image for 25 seconds, you should be able to see a glowing light bulb. Photo / Supplied

"As with The Face of Jesus and The Queen's face, we reverse the negative image and turn it into positive," the site explains.

"With the light bulb illusion, the glass of the bulb is a large area of black, so that when we look away, the reversal results in a dazzling bulb."

It's not the first time an optical has left people very confused — last year, an image of a little girl standing in a park had divided Twitter users.

The young girl was holding a bag of popcorn between her legs, but due to the way it was positioned, it had camouflaged with the grass and created the illusion she had very tiny legs.

"Holy sh*t, this pic messed me up for a second, haha. Low key scared the cr*p out of me, haha," one Twitter user said at the time.

As explained earlier, it all comes down to the arrangement of images, the effect of colours, the impact of light source or other variables, which in turn a wide range of misleading visual effects can be seen.