What can you see in this photo?

Blinking ‘eck ... is this the most teasing optical illusion of all time?

That’s the question on the lips of thousands of people nationwide who are left squinting and scratching their heads after being faced with this seemingly innocuous picture of a brick wall.

Can you see the cigar in the picture? Thousands can, yet it seems that the majority of people are struggling to identify anything other than bricks and mortar.

We hope we haven’t ‘cigared’ you for life with this brain teaser...

Why do optical illusions work?

The first thing to know is that the perception of an illusion is more about how your brain works than your eyes deceiving you.

Put simply, everything that enters the senses needs to be interpreted through the brain -- and these interpretations occasionally go wrong.

So, how do some people see through the illusion quickly, while others struggle?

One reason is that some people have better spatial attention, which allows them to selectively process visual information through prioritisation of an area within the visual field.

The other reason is slightly less scientific, they simply get lucky, with their eyes spotting the object immediately.