Brainstorm or green needle? New video shows ‘Laurel or Yanny’ style illusion – and it is even more perplexing

Digging into the video appears to confirm what it is actually saying

A new strange sound is rivalling "Yanny or Laurel" – and it is even more strange.

The new video asks people whether they are hearing the words "brainstorm" or "green needle" when they listen to the strange clip. And – just like the original video – it is probably both.

But unlike the original "Yanny or Laurel" video, the sounds both seem to be even more present, all at once. In fact, it is very easy to swap between the two, just by thinking of the required word.

That means it can be easy to hear both at once, just by concentrating. And all that seems to decide which you are hearing is which word you have read most recently.

The effect is even more confusing because the two words seem so different to each other – using different amounts of syllables, as well as different sounds.

The "brainstorm or green needle" video was taken from a long review of a Ben 10 toy that was posted to YouTube in 2014. That appears to suggest that the word is definitely "brainstorm" because that is the name of a character in the show – though of course whichever you hear is correct, in a way.

The original "Laurel or Yanny" video was taken from a recording of the former word on dictionary.com. It appears to have then been played out of computer and re-recorded, and the low quality of both the speakers and the microphone added distortion that emphasised the word "Yanny".