Posted on 06/09/2015 7:51:15 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Patients with visual symptoms most often saw simple shapes and colors. But some people reported more distinct images, “for example, resembling wallpaper, a kaleidoscope, or fireworks, or even specific scenes and people,” the authors write.
Then there were the ghosts.
Some people said they had seen strangers haunting their fields of vision,
...
“We can now tell whether certain kinds of patients are more likely to have phantom symptoms,” she says. For example, “PES is more common in younger patients, and having pain in the non-existent eye is more likely in patients who are anxious and depressed, although we don’t know why.”
About a fifth of PES patients, understandably, said they were disturbed by their symptoms. A similar number found them “pleasurable,” Hope-Stone says.
Doctors aren’t sure exactly why phantom eye syndrome occurs. Since different patients have different symptoms, Hope-Stone says, “I suspect that…there may be a range of causes.”
For that matter, phantom limbs are still mysterious to doctors too. “Human perception is a complex process,” Hope-Stone explains. Even when our sensory organs are gone—the vision receptors in our eyes, the pain and touch receptors in our hands—the nerves and brain areas that used to talk to those organs keep working just fine. “Interactions between [these systems] may contribute to phantom sensations,” she says, although “the exact mechanisms are unclear.”
Even if they don’t know why it happens, doctors can warn their patients about the kinds of symptoms they’re likely to experience—and the ghosts they might see.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.discovermagazine.com ...
Ping.
Let Mojo read this.
Never heard of PES.. it’s fascinating. Thanks for posting this, Ben. I have heard of the phantom pain from loss limbs but never the “visions” from a missing eye.
He said thanks.
Some migraine sufferers will “see” lights or what is described as “Lightening”. It usually happens prior to a migraine. My neurologist said they are sometimes treated more easily since they get a “warning” of sorts.
Did he look like obama?
I get the weird visuals but not the headaches, thank goodness. It looks like a ribbon of bright, rippling wavy light, like seeing things thru a clear, sunny stream, that begins at the center and expands outwards across my field of vision over the course of 10 or 15 minutes, then is gone. Doesn’t matter if my eyes are open or closed. It’s annoying but doesn’t happen very often. Anyway, I hope the headaches never come!
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