4 ms·

As a migraineur, just about the last thing I want to look at is migraine art. That said, none of the pieces shown in the article are particularly good visual r

As a migraineur, just about the last thing I want to look at is migraine art. That said, none of the pieces shown in the article are particularly good visual representations of the scintillating scotoma that I experience.

nippoo 3y ago
As a non-migraineur (and neuroscientist) I find this absolutely fascinating! It's so wild that these are visual enough to draw.
- billy_bitchtits 3y ago
  Another very perfect looking simulation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVYjbthGk2s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVYjbthGk2s
  - vundercind 3y ago
    I don’t get so much of a rainbow effect, and the shimmering edges of mine are more hairy than blobby if that makes sense. But yeah, pretty good representation. Note to non-migraine-enjoyers: the grey blob in the video isn’t grey, it’s just an area you can’t see in. Your brain tries to fill it in the best it can, as it does with any eye damage, so you might see a blank region on a page when there’s actually text there, for example. This means the shimmery bit isn’t at the edge of a grey blob, but a strange nothing-zone of fuzziness where things that “enter” the zone may or may not vanish, and which feels distorted and wrong, like a fun-house mirror and a kaleidoscope at once. If they get big enough they kinda go blank, but still aren’t really grey—I’m not sure what color you’d call them. (At least for me—maybe some people really see a grey splotch?)
    - cadence- 3y ago
      Perfect description. I will save it and show it the next time somebody asks me what it looks like.
klyrs 3y ago
Hah. As somebody who first experienced this a few months ago, I was quite relieved to discover this sort of art. None of it looks quite like mine, but after seeing enough of the variety in others' experience, I feel comfortable positively identifying that symptom.
tiltowait 3y ago
Same. I used to get migraines weekly, and sometimes even more often than that. I had to visit the ER twice because of them, and one was so bad, the doctors thought it was a brain aneurysm. Just thinking about migraines makes me feel antsy. Though I won’t look at the images, I can say that the auras I experience don’t all look the same. Some are blurrier than others, and some have more structure. It got to the point I could predict how painful and how long they would last by the shape and speed of the aura’s onset. The most painful ones had the most clearly defined structures, while I was much more likely to throw up if they were especially blurry. And now I’m starting to feel that particular sort of sick just discussing it, so I’ll stop there!

nippoo 3y ago

As a non-migraineur (and neuroscientist) I find this absolutely fascinating! It's so wild that these are visual enough to draw.

billy_bitchtits 3y ago
Another very perfect looking simulation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVYjbthGk2s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVYjbthGk2s
- vundercind 3y ago
  I don’t get so much of a rainbow effect, and the shimmering edges of mine are more hairy than blobby if that makes sense. But yeah, pretty good representation. Note to non-migraine-enjoyers: the grey blob in the video isn’t grey, it’s just an area you can’t see in. Your brain tries to fill it in the best it can, as it does with any eye damage, so you might see a blank region on a page when there’s actually text there, for example. This means the shimmery bit isn’t at the edge of a grey blob, but a strange nothing-zone of fuzziness where things that “enter” the zone may or may not vanish, and which feels distorted and wrong, like a fun-house mirror and a kaleidoscope at once. If they get big enough they kinda go blank, but still aren’t really grey—I’m not sure what color you’d call them. (At least for me—maybe some people really see a grey splotch?)
  - cadence- 3y ago
    Perfect description. I will save it and show it the next time somebody asks me what it looks like.

klyrs 3y ago

Hah. As somebody who first experienced this a few months ago, I was quite relieved to discover this sort of art. None of it looks quite like mine, but after seeing enough of the variety in others' experience, I feel comfortable positively identifying that symptom.

tiltowait 3y ago

Same. I used to get migraines weekly, and sometimes even more often than that. I had to visit the ER twice because of them, and one was so bad, the doctors thought it was a brain aneurysm. Just thinking about migraines makes me feel antsy. Though I won’t look at the images, I can say that the auras I experience don’t all look the same. Some are blurrier than others, and some have more structure. It got to the point I could predict how painful and how long they would last by the shape and speed of the aura’s onset. The most painful ones had the most clearly defined structures, while I was much more likely to throw up if they were especially blurry. And now I’m starting to feel that particular sort of sick just discussing it, so I’ll stop there!