Over the past couple of months I’ve suffered increasing Palinopsia whereby I see images that I have been looking at earlier but at random times, moving my eyes seems to bring it on occasionally. Today, I saw an image of the orange candies in a line of three from Candy Crush Saga which I’d been playing about 15 minutes earlier. There was no after image immediately either.
Here’s a link to the Wiki on it Palinopsia - Wikipedia (sorry I don’t know how to hyperlink here).
I’m not overly concerned about it but am interested to know if anybody diagnosed, or in limbo, has this phenomenon?
Lyn x
I know this post is a few months old, but I had to respond. Yes! I do suffer from Palinopsia, but until today I didn’t know it had a name. I assumed it was just after-images and that everybody had them to a certain extent. But I noticed after playing games like Candy Crush and Bejeweled, the images would appear even hours afterward. Based on what I’ve read today, the motion and brightness of light are a big factor. I had to stop playing Bejeweled because it got to the point that I was seeing the jewels in some formation every time I blinked my eyes.
I just began playing Candy Crush a couple of weeks ago and I think I’m going to have to avoid it as well. I asked family and friends had they experienced the same phenomenon, and no one else had. That’s when I thought to Google it and discovered it had a name–Palinopsia–and that it is not uncommon in people who have optic neuritis, and other neurological or brain disorders.
I was diagnosed with relapsing/remitting MS in 1993 (now secondary-progressive), and I’ve had a few bouts of optic neuritis. It makes sense to me to learn that this is related to MS. I’ve never been able to stand driving at night because the motion combined with the brightly colored headlights and traffic signals are disorienting to me.
After reading about it today, I guess there’s no treatment except to avoid the stimuli whenever possible and wait for the images to fade over time.
Adding to this old post because I am experiencing something similar but over a much shorter timescale. On wednesday, a number of times as I looked to the right to cross roads at night, the rear lights of cars which had passed by and were now several metres away appeared to leave a streak of after images in their wake, a bit like a strobe effect without the flashing, or a timelapse photo. I only saw this for maybe a second or so on each occasion. It seems to relate to another visual experience that I have occasionally had at night (which I recently posted on) where I see multiple clear copies (20 or so), of a real bright image which happens to be at the centre of my vision at regular horizontally spaced intervals across my field of view. I am wondering if this is caused by the same thing except that the stimulus image was in front and static. Checking through at present with the optician who wanted to rule out a couple of things by changing my contact prescription, but the wednesday experience was after the new lenses. I have come across references to two phenomena that seem relevant Palinopsia and Polyopia, which may also occur together.
Yes, I have this, I have loads of trouble with my eyesight! Started about 3 years ago, I have thought that I am going crazy! I am not diagnosed with MS, I have an abnormal brain MRI and am having lumbar puncture and VEPS on Tuesday. I have all sorts of crazy things wrong with my eyes, blurred vision, afterimages, ghosting images, rippling peripheral vision, now double vision on looking left, vision flashing on and off, jerky vision, lots of bright flashes when I move my eyes, flickering in peripheral vision, things seem to jump around out of the corner of my eye! I have been to countless opticians since all this started and they just say that my eyes look fine!
I guess the problem is in my brain somewhere
Did the referral for mri, vep and lumbar come about because of visual symptoms, if so did an optician think to refer you?
I wasnt referred by an optician regarding my eye symptoms. In addition to the visual eye symptoms, I have areas of numbness, tingling, dreadful fatigue, (so bad that I quit work) dizziness, terrible balance problems. My initial diagnosis is fibromyalgia but when I went again to the GP complaining of double vision and a slightly numb patch on my thigh, my GP actually thought to link all these symptoms and thought we needed to look at MS, either rule it in or out so I was referred to a neurologist who ordered the brain scan. He didnt make a follow-up appointment and I was not expecting the scan to really find anything but a few weeks later I received a letter saying there are some areas of high signal in the white matter and we should to proceed to LP and VEP. I will be seen in clinic later on for results. So now I am back to worrying mode, more waiting to find out what exactly is going on!
Hi mrbobowen. Do you mind re-linking the article you are referring to? When I clicked on the link I got a 404-error, page not found. I’m interested in more info about the condition. Thanks!
Hope this works:
http://axnscollective.org/fractured-visions-to-see-again/
Actually you can get to it from the other link by scrolling up and looking at previous projects menu for ‘Fractured Visions’.
Thank you, that worked just fine! I guess I need to view it on my iPad instead of my computer.
Interesting occurrence a few days ago. Driving along and for a couple of minutes and maybe six or seven times I got a momentary flash of a tall orange crane steeply angled against the background sky. Took me a while to realise I must have driven past one earlier along the route and on my return I checked and found that I had.
Just found these two interesting links that may be relevant
http://www.essex.ac.uk/psychology/overlays/2013-207.pdf
Thanks for this. I continue to find the whole phenomenon fascinating. I was particularly struck by this sentence in the last link, “The neurological effects of saccadic suppression appear in motion-sensitive neurons.”
I find that my MS is especially motion-sensitive. For years, I found that looking at the tail lights of cars as darkness fell, to run the gamut from simply annoying, to causing dizziness and anxiety. I even find it increasingly difficult to spend an evening at the movie theater. Many times, the brightness of the large screen, coupled with the dark environment and the “creative” use of camera angles and motions leave my nerves screaming and my body physically ill from motion sickness. For instance, I wanted to see The Great Gatsby a few years back, but knew I’d never manage it.
I seem to have major issues with “motion sensitive neurons” that don’t seem to bother other people I know. Glad to find out that there is some solid science behind this.
p.s. I’m in the U.S., so I’m not familiar with the “cat eyes” that I keep seeing referenced, but it definitely sounds like something that would wreak havoc with my retinas and motion sensitive neurons!
You probably understood that they are highly reflective road studs to make clear the boundaries or centre lines between road lanes in the dark. I have only noted an issue for myself with them when driving through the Hindhead tunnel an the A3 in Surrey. If my eye sweeps across the road ahead, then about the next ten ahead also sweep across the road briefly but simultaneously in arcs of maybe eight or more equally spaced copies.
I have recently become aware that I have many many if not all the symptoms of early detection. I recent realize the I am suffering from Palinopsia which hasn’t always been a problem beyond need glassess when I drive at night since 2002. for the last few months have noticed it more and more and not just with light but with bright colors on a computer screen.