when you see it photo what am i supposed to see

v/viii/xiv

Charles Bonnet Syndrome

"Practice you e'er see anything you know is non there but looks real anyway?" I asked Sam Weinberg when he came to the Low Vision Living program.

"No." he said, looking at his wife, Rachel, and fidgeting with his sweater.

"Oh", I said casually, "I just asked because many people with macular degeneration encounter things they know are not at that place. I call information technology phantom vision, simply the technical term is Charles Bonnet Syndrome."

"Is this syndrome an early sign of Alzheimer's?" Sam asked pointedly, still looking at Rachel. . .

"Absolutely not", I said firmly. "Charles Bonnet Syndrome has nothing to do with mental agility or stability. When you lot have phantom vision, your mind is fine; it is your eyes that are playing tricks on you. It's a side effect of low vision."

"Well," Sam admitted quickly, "I see niggling monkeys with red hats and blue coats playing in the front yard. I've seem them for eighteen months."

"What!" Rachel's eyes virtually popped out of her head. "Little monkeys in the front yard?"

"Well. . .um," Sam continued, "sometimes I see them in the living room as well."

What is Charles Bonnet Syndrome (CBS)?
Charles Bonnet was an eighteenth century Swiss naturalist and philosopher. . . who described his grandfather'south curious experience of seeing men, women, birds and buildings that he knew were not there. After in his life, Bonnet's ain vision deteriorated and he experienced phantom visions similar to his grandad's. . . .Charles Bonnet'south discovery didn't capture medical attention at the time. But 150 years later on, in the 1930'south, his files were dusted off, and he was credited with being the first person to describe the syndrome that came to be named for him.

Image seen by someone with CBS

How common is CBS?
This syndrome is very common. Studies place the number somewhere betwixt 10 and 40 percent of people with low vision. Xx percent of my low vision patients have Charles Bonnet Syndrome. . . To determine whether or not you lot are experiencing phantom vision: Do the images that appear to you take the post-obit half-dozen characteristics?

1. They occur when y'all are fully conscious and wide awake, often during broad daylight
2. They do non deceive y'all; you are aware that they are not real.
3. They occur in combination with normal perception. For case, yous may see a sidewalk clearly but find it covered with dots, flowers, or faces.
4. They are exclusively visual and practice non appear in combination with whatsoever sounds or bizarre sensations.
5. They appear and disappear without obvious cause.
6. They are agreeable or abrasive but not grotesque.

An image described past a person with CBS

What do people with CBS encounter?
My patients. . . have reported seeing cartoon characters, flowers in the bath sink, hands rubbing each other, waterfalls and mountains, tigers, maple copse in vibrant autumn foliage, xanthous polka dots, row houses, a dinner political party and brightly colored balloons. . . One of the most remarkable qualities of these figures is that they near always clothing pleasant expressions. . . Menacing beliefs, grotesque shapes and scenes of violent conflict are not, to my knowledge, a part of this syndrome.

Usually the same image or set of images reappears to each person. Sam'due south monkeys commonly materialized around sunset. . .They stayed for x or 20 minutes several times a calendar week for 2 years and and so began to announced less frequently. Some times the images change of multiple images announced. . .

Little girls dancing in the yard

Dolly Kowalski's Little Girls with Pink Bows
'I come across trivial girls with pink bows playing in my g. At get-go, there was only one little girl. But later a while, she had several playmates. At present they come almost every evening for fifteen minutes. . .They are and so delightful, so cheerful, so active. Their little white dresses and pink bows blow in the wind. I see them so incredibly conspicuously, much more clearly than I see anything else at present. . . .I know they aren't real, simply you wouldn't believe how realistic they seem. . . . I wish you lot could see them the manner I exercise.'"

Farther annotation by Lylas Mogk, MD
Fortunately, most people, like Dolly, find the images of CBS largely untroubling and many actually observe them amusing or enjoyable, every bit they are ordinarily pleasant and they are crystal articulate. At that place is no drug treatment for CBS, but information technology is associated with sensory deprivation, so the more agile and engaged one is the less probable it is to occur. That's one reason why vision rehabilitation to empower individuals to accomplish their daily activities in spite of vision loss.

Excerpts were used from Macular Degeneration: The Complete Guide to Saving and Maximizing Your Sight, by Lylas G. Mogk, MD and Marja Mogk, PhD, New York: Ballantine Books, 2003, Affiliate viii, pp. 236-252.

Lylas G. Mogk, Doctor
Director, Middle for Vision Rehabilitation and Research
Henry Ford Health System

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Source: https://discoveryeye.org/when-you-see-things-that-arent-there-charles-bonnet-syndrome/

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