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There’s nothing like a good puzzle to pass the time and train the brain, and if you’re looking for a fun little challenge, check out this visual brain teaser. You might get lucky and spot the bear without the bowtie right away. Or, you might end up spending a lot more time than intended looking for that evasive little teddy toy.
Either way, pattern-based brain teasers like these are fun and, like all puzzles, may even have some cognitive benefits. They can also combat negative feelings and boost your mood. They’re designed to trick your eyes; humans are built to take in only large details, which means they may miss small ones our brains think are unimportant. Otherwise, we’d never be able to focus, according to Popular Science.
Here’s the puzzle from Reader’s Digest’s Facebook page:
Did you find it?
Need a hint? You’ll want to look at the bottom right of the image, where there’s an even higher concentration of brown. You want to figure out where there isn’t a spot of bowtie color. The Sun reports that the person who solved the puzzle the fastest found the bear in just 16 seconds.
This puzzle comes courtesy of Perpetual Fostering, a U.K.-based fostering agency, perhaps to publicize the work that it does. We’re wondering if this is a thing U.K. companies do sometimes, since Reader’s Digest also posted this one on Facebook in May. It’s from Dancewear Central, a dance apparel company, and you have to find the ballerina among the flamingos.
If you like these kinds of seek-and-find puzzles, you should check out the work of Hungarian artist Gergely Dudás-Dudolf, who has made a career out of creating similar mind-bending puzzles that are both cute and difficult.
For example, he posted this one last week on his Facebook page as well as his blog, which you’ll want to click on to see the full picture (and the solution):
His blog is full of these brainteasers, often themed for the time of year, so you’ll be able to play to your heart’s content. Of course, if you’d rather seek-and-find a paper version, he’s got several books out that make this a convenient family pastime, like Bear’s Springtime Book of Hidden Things. And he’s not the only one: Highlights has The Hardest Hidden Pictures Book Ever, and you can find others as well.
Basically, if you’re looking for a bit of mental stimulation, you’ve got it. Don’t let those kids suffer from summer brain drain — show them one of these.
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