Can you see all 12 black dots in this mind-bending optical illusion?

IF you thought Kim Kardashian's bum had a devastating effect on the internet, then you've clearly never seen what happens when an optical illusion goes viral.

Now another strange visual puzzle is setting social media alight after causing viewers to suffer an "existential crisis" when they can't see 12 dots all at the same time.

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The puzzle was uploaded to Twitter yesterday and has now been shared more than 9,000 times.

"There are twelve black dots at the intersections in this image," wrote games developer Will Kerslake.

"Your brain won’t let you see them all at once."

Dozens of people responded to the tweet, expressing their shock at being unable to observe the dozen dots.

A Twitter user wrote: "Woah. My right eye sees none... The left sees 1-2 at a time and that is so cool."

However, not everyone had the same problem.

One man tweeted: "My wife can see all 12 just fine. Is she a witch? Please advise."

Another added: "I can see them as well but I've had a bottle of wine. Maybe that helps!"

Derek Arnold, a vision expert at the University of Queensland, said the puzzle was likely to freak people out.

"They think: 'It’s an existential crisis,'"

"'How can I ever know what the truth is?'"

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The illusion happens when the brain guesses what's going on in the image as you stare at just one part of it.

The dots are placed at the intersection of several grey lines. When the eye sees this intersection in its peripheral vision, the illusion of a small, faint square is created.

"That can counteract the blurry black dot that is actually, physically there," Arnold added.

The optical illusion was first posted to Facebook Japanese psychology professor Akiyoshi Kitaoka over the weekend and is based upon a similar puzzle from an academic paper published in the journal Perception back in 2000.