The 1-9 brainteaser that is tripping up Brits who think they can solve it in 5 seconds

This brainteaser is definitely more than initially meets the eye - and challenges you to spot the mistake in the image in less than five seconds - did you manage to figure it out?

This brainteaser has left some people seriously confused. The aim of the game here is to find the sneaky mistake hidden in the image in five seconds or less - but not everyone will be able to manage it. Regularly challenging yourself with riddles, brainteasers like this one, optical illusions, and puzzles alike have a myriad of benefits.

From improving your attention to detail, memory, and critical reasoning abilities, this kind of brain training is well worth incorporating into your weekly schedule. A study has even shown that doing a daily puzzle can help keep some of the negative impacts of aging at bay - something everyone will be keen to do.

By stimulating your cognitive processes in this way, you also can boost your mood - because solving them can activate the reward centre in your brain and give you a hit of dopamine, which can help increase your motivation too, so overall puzzling makes you happier and healthier - and gives you bragging rights in the group chat when you manage to solve them quicker than your friends and family, so what's not to love?

This brainteaser from Playbuzz is an image that challenges you to spot the mistake and lists the numbers one through nine. Check it out below and see if you can spot the error in the image. You're aiming to do this in under five seconds ideally, but if it takes you a little longer - don't worry about it, some people may not be able to solve it at all.

Did you manage to spot the mistake in the image above? If not, don't despair - because this kind of brainteaser is designed to trip you up. Our brains actually run at a very slight lag to reality - this is because it takes hundreds of milliseconds for us to properly process the images our eyes are taking in. In that lag, we are forced to rely on a set of assumptions based on everything we have seen and experienced before. But this means that sometimes we see what's in front of us, without really looking at it.

Scroll on to have your answer confirmed if you think you have solved it, but if you aren't sure then go back up to the first image and have another look. Here is a clue if you are really stuck: make sure you're looking at the whole image, not just the colourful numbers.

The error here lies in the text, with the word 'the' repeated but it's easy to presume that the mistake would be in the listed numbers, which is why some people found this one so tricky. How long did it take you to solve this confusing brainteaser? Let us know in the comments.

Do you have a story to tell? Email: emma.mackenzie@reachplc.com