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I've been getting migraine auras with scintillating scotomas since I was 16 though it only happens about once every few months and they last a few minutes to a

I've been getting migraine auras with scintillating scotomas since I was 16 though it only happens about once every few months and they last a few minutes to a couple of hours so they have not been too debilitating. This article provides a great description. First time I had one, I thought it was a stroke because I couldn't read anymore and I had paresthesia (numbness and tingling) in my hands and face. I believe the paresthesia is mostly brought on by anxiety/hyperventilation as I don't always get it. My scintillating scotomas don't look very bright though. In fact, the first few times I had them, I didn't notice any color at all. I just noticed that part of my field of vision was missing. It's weird. You could be staring directly at someone's face but you cannot see part of it and yet you can see everything else normally. At the same time, there is no noticeable gap or hole or discontinuity in your field of vision. Just like the article mentions, it's like a distortion of space-time within the field of vision. I don't think it's possible to accurately convey the experience through art but you can get a vague idea by looking at altered photos of human faces with 4 eyes and 2 mouths. You can feel your brain trying to create blind spots in order to make sense of what it's seeing. It's a bit like that except your brain isn't trying to hide specific features but a fixed portion of your field of view.

foobarbecue 3y ago
My migraine always comes with zigzag colorful ribbon, tingling in my right hand and the right side of my tongue, and disappearing areas of vision as you describe. My speech is also affected -- incorrect words or garbled words come out of my mouth when I try to talk. The symptoms are quite stroke-like -- it sounds like there's actually a bit of a continnum between migraine and stroke, with TIA (transient ischmeic attacks) in between. I did get scanned after my first one though and no damage was visible. Thankfully, mine only last about half and hour, and only seem to happen once a year or so. It's such a weird experience that I tend to forget how strange it is between occurrences because it's hard to believe the memories.
Kaibeezy 3y ago
Yep, I thought my first one was a stroke too. I just happened to be driving past my doctor’s office, went in quite panicked, and was told to sit down, chill out and observe it. She was completely calm, so that’s what I did. It really is a fascinating vision. I was told most people susceptible to migraines get either these ocular ones or the painful kind, rarely both. I’m not sure how true that is but I don’t think I’ve ever gotten the painful kind. Frequency is once or twice every two or three years since the first one a dozen years ago. It’s easy to imagine people in the past attributing mystical meaning to such a strange and oddly beautiful phenomenon.
- blincoln 3y ago
  I've only had the experience once, years ago, but I thought it was my retina detaching (based on the vague descriptions opthalmologists have given me my entire life). It was the middle of the night, so I went to the ER. They thought I was on drugs, then got angry with me for "self-diagnosing using Google" when I showed them an artist's impression of a scintillating scotoma and said that's what it must be. Mine was very colourful, and as the arc/spiral/ring grew, most of the inner part retained the unusual visual effect. I made an animated GIF at the time.[1] I remember distinctly that the edges were the pseudocolour that flickers rapidly between yellow and purple, like my perception of pressure phosphenes. I'm still very curious why it has such a specific appearance. Does it have something to do with the pattern of receptors on our retina? I know there are more numerous, closely-spaced receptors near the middle and fewer spaced further apart the closer to the outer edge, so I've assumed there was a connection, but haven't seen information either way. [1] Imagine a growing spiral made of thousands of triangles like these, with triangles closer to the middle smaller in size and larger toward the edges. Or alternatively, imagine the painting by Hubert Airy in the article, but made up of these triangles. >>> WARNING: not for people with sensitivity to rapidly flashing light! <<< http://www.beneaththewaves.net/aura.gif http://www.beneaththewaves.net/aura.gif
  - zachmu 3y ago
    It's not a retinal phenomenon, it's a cortical spreading depression passing over your visual cortex. The fact that the aura moves through visual space in a regular fashion in one piece implies that the neurons in the visual cortex are spatially arranged in way that maps more or less 1:1 with the visual field. Which I guess isn't that surprising when I think about it, but doesn't seem inevitable.
    - blincoln 3y ago
      Sorry if I was unclear. I wasn't trying to imply that it did or didn't directly involve the retina, just that it seemed suspiciously related to the arrangement of receptors on the retina, and I was curious why. If you had a spreading pattern of bad data in VRAM, it's unlikely that the physical arrangement of the bits would map well to the current screen resolution and give a circle or box shape on screen, for example.

foobarbecue 3y ago

My migraine always comes with zigzag colorful ribbon, tingling in my right hand and the right side of my tongue, and disappearing areas of vision as you describe. My speech is also affected -- incorrect words or garbled words come out of my mouth when I try to talk. The symptoms are quite stroke-like -- it sounds like there's actually a bit of a continnum between migraine and stroke, with TIA (transient ischmeic attacks) in between. I did get scanned after my first one though and no damage was visible. Thankfully, mine only last about half and hour, and only seem to happen once a year or so. It's such a weird experience that I tend to forget how strange it is between occurrences because it's hard to believe the memories.

Kaibeezy 3y ago

Yep, I thought my first one was a stroke too. I just happened to be driving past my doctor’s office, went in quite panicked, and was told to sit down, chill out and observe it. She was completely calm, so that’s what I did. It really is a fascinating vision. I was told most people susceptible to migraines get either these ocular ones or the painful kind, rarely both. I’m not sure how true that is but I don’t think I’ve ever gotten the painful kind. Frequency is once or twice every two or three years since the first one a dozen years ago. It’s easy to imagine people in the past attributing mystical meaning to such a strange and oddly beautiful phenomenon.

blincoln 3y ago
I've only had the experience once, years ago, but I thought it was my retina detaching (based on the vague descriptions opthalmologists have given me my entire life). It was the middle of the night, so I went to the ER. They thought I was on drugs, then got angry with me for "self-diagnosing using Google" when I showed them an artist's impression of a scintillating scotoma and said that's what it must be. Mine was very colourful, and as the arc/spiral/ring grew, most of the inner part retained the unusual visual effect. I made an animated GIF at the time.[1] I remember distinctly that the edges were the pseudocolour that flickers rapidly between yellow and purple, like my perception of pressure phosphenes. I'm still very curious why it has such a specific appearance. Does it have something to do with the pattern of receptors on our retina? I know there are more numerous, closely-spaced receptors near the middle and fewer spaced further apart the closer to the outer edge, so I've assumed there was a connection, but haven't seen information either way. [1] Imagine a growing spiral made of thousands of triangles like these, with triangles closer to the middle smaller in size and larger toward the edges. Or alternatively, imagine the painting by Hubert Airy in the article, but made up of these triangles. >>> WARNING: not for people with sensitivity to rapidly flashing light! <<< http://www.beneaththewaves.net/aura.gif http://www.beneaththewaves.net/aura.gif
- zachmu 3y ago
  It's not a retinal phenomenon, it's a cortical spreading depression passing over your visual cortex. The fact that the aura moves through visual space in a regular fashion in one piece implies that the neurons in the visual cortex are spatially arranged in way that maps more or less 1:1 with the visual field. Which I guess isn't that surprising when I think about it, but doesn't seem inevitable.
  - blincoln 3y ago
    Sorry if I was unclear. I wasn't trying to imply that it did or didn't directly involve the retina, just that it seemed suspiciously related to the arrangement of receptors on the retina, and I was curious why. If you had a spreading pattern of bad data in VRAM, it's unlikely that the physical arrangement of the bits would map well to the current screen resolution and give a circle or box shape on screen, for example.