"seeing little people" is such a hyper specific visual effect, it begs questions. Since I am well aware how my mind fills in gaps in the visual field with attempts to map what I would expect or want to see (try holding your head rigidly ahead and look with a steady gaze at a near field pattern like floor tiles to experience your brain filling in the missing pieces in the field) I ask: what could this actually be?
For instance, when I get (got: my blood pressure is treated) migraine visual effects, I would say "lightning bolt" but thats just a textual analogue/simile. What I actually saw was more complex than that: lightning is white. My effect was polychrome.
When I had posterior vitreous detachment (PVD), the visual effect was as if I was looking at TV "snow" from the analogue days, combined with a shape unquestionably like red blood cells. Was I seeing blood? I am told no: I was seeing small points inside the focal zone of my eye, below the minimum resolving size, and the optical path turns points into rings.
So is "little people" moving stimulation of the nerve endings interpreted as "walking" and a strong vertical alignment for some reason? Is the colour an aspect of rods and cones being involved, or the nerves going to rods and cones being differentially effected?
> For instance, when I get (got: my blood pressure is treated) migraine visual effects, I would say "lightning bolt" but thats just a textual analogue/simile. What I actually saw was more complex than that: lightning is white. My effect was polychrome.
I personally have my doubts whether it has to do with blood pressure (i had it while on medication and normal blood pressure), or that it's generated by the brain, but lack the time/motivation/skill to research this further.
It's really fascinating stuff (and pretty unnerving, speaking as someone who experiences migraines with aura).
On the blood pressure connection, propranolol (a beta blocker often used to treat high blood pressure and anxiety) is often prescribed as a prophylactic for migraines, but I'm unsure of the preventative mechanism(s) at play.
If anything I said implied this was a novel, new phenomena, I withdraw that implication completely. I was attempting to discuss how I subjectively experience and would describe it, and the effects on documentation of that description, not that I saw any perceptual effect nobody else saw.
One wonders how it would affect someone who has been blind from birth: would they hear little people? Would their optic system be activated by the unknown compounds? etc.
Yep, there might be two factors here. From what you describe in your experiences, these seem like real artifacts that occur due to physical changes happening on and around the eyeball? (Photopsia seems to be what you describe).
In my experience when hallucinating (from sleep deprivation), it is the brain failing to correctly interpret patterns seen through the eyes.
For e.g., I would think I see a cardboard box on the ground ahead of me, but then when I get closer I realise it is just dirt of different shades that was perceived as a 3d box.
Similar experience when hallucinating people. In my mind I imagine my friend with a certain colour shirt, then during a period of sleep deprivation, I think I see him on the trail ahead of me. But it was just a rock that was a similar colour.
Do hallucinogenics typically affect the brain and also the actual optics? Maybe it is some combination that is causing the perception of "little people".
Reconsider the blood cell visualization thing. I've had bilateral PVD. Each was accompanied by an initial few minutes of seeing a few dozen small dark spots that had lighter grey centers. Most visible when I looked at the sky. They all disappeared after a few minutes. I think these were RBCs from minimal retinal blood vessel tearing at the PVD events.
Human RBCs are ~6µm - 8µm diameter. Human retinal light sensing cells range from ~0.5µm - 10µm diameter, depending on type and position. They're close packed.
Given the geometry, RBCs leaking onto retinal cells should cast shadows that could be resolved as images. And that's right where leakage is most likely to occur during a PVD event.
Interesting. I told the specialist what I'd seen, they said "not blood cells" but I'm open to re-consideration. I got a pretty complete ocular examination both times, the iris dilation and "I must be a vampire I cannot handle sunlight" is a joy.
No, quite different. Floaters look like paramecium in my visual field, or hairs floating in fluid (that kind of corona around an object) Maybe there is a sub class of floater which is like PVD but .. to me at least this was qualitatively different.
I suppose the crap left over from a PVD incident would be a sub-class of "floater" but in quality, its nothing like the floaters I get "all the time" as normal life, before and after PVD.
The one upside of PVD is I am told your chances of a retinal tear are reduced, if you have a "clean" PVD.
Slightly off topic, but on a clear blue sky it's possible to directly visualize the white blood cells running around on your retina. I love watching them go about business, and I think I heard it can even be used diagnostically to do a manual WBC count in extremis for leukoproliferative disease.
They're pretty tiny though, I'm not sure if you'd actually see a center in the RBCs
The lighter centers could have been diffraction around the object and reconvergence. Or some kind of signal processing effect at the retinal level.
The retinal vessel network is a fun thing to inspect as you say. It works best for me when the sun is high in the sky. The bright, featureless blue brings out the branching network very well.
> Since I am well aware how my mind fills in gaps in the visual field with attempts to map what I would expect or want to see
Your mind also creates the visual field. It is not real even though it is usually quite consistent. Brain fills the gaps after it has filled all the rest.
Just a handy visualization of a world that is likely to be a lot more chaotic.
I've heard of this before, including a first person account, and the effects are apparently that specific. Lots of people consistently report the same thing. It's not just moving patterns, it's actually a bunch of tiny people running around, climbing on the furniture, etc.
I'd be asking if the back record had hyper specific reports of people in clothing which was period appropriate for how "little people" are ideated, or if instead they were tiny angels and daemons (or skeletons) because how you culturally project what you see would inform how they describe it.
I very much doubt that in future times, people will be reporting seeing tiny people in North Face fleece tops and leggings, or with Asymmetrical haircuts and goth make-up but you never know..
For instance, when I get (got: my blood pressure is treated) migraine visual effects, I would say "lightning bolt" but thats just a textual analogue/simile. What I actually saw was more complex than that: lightning is white. My effect was polychrome.
When I had posterior vitreous detachment (PVD), the visual effect was as if I was looking at TV "snow" from the analogue days, combined with a shape unquestionably like red blood cells. Was I seeing blood? I am told no: I was seeing small points inside the focal zone of my eye, below the minimum resolving size, and the optical path turns points into rings.
So is "little people" moving stimulation of the nerve endings interpreted as "walking" and a strong vertical alignment for some reason? Is the colour an aspect of rods and cones being involved, or the nerves going to rods and cones being differentially effected?