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Physiology & Medicine / Why do I see a floating red disk?
« on: 26/03/2011 20:30:03 »
Conrad Berube asked the Naked Scientists:
Dear Chris:
Greetings from British Columbia where I have taken time off from leaping from tree to tree as they float down our mighty rivers-- with my best girl by my side-- to ask the following medical question (which suggests a theme for whole show, that is, the question does, not the leaping bit): every once in a while I will wake up - I think it's usually when I've been lying on my back - and as I look around the room I seem to see a red disk that seems to float around the dark room as I look around tracking wherever my gaze wanders. (I figure that it probably is some kind of phosphene caused by blood pooling in the macula of the retina or something similar.) Is this a common enough phenomenon to have a known cause or should I get checked for brain tumors?
I believe it would be a really interesting to dedicate a whole show to cover these kinds of neurological illusions like some of those I found at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/3350191/The-upside-down-world-of-illusions.html when I searched for that term on Google, things like the "gorilla in our midst", the Pinocchio illusion, the phantom third arm, the McGurk Effect etc.
Conrad Berube
What do you think?
Dear Chris:
Greetings from British Columbia where I have taken time off from leaping from tree to tree as they float down our mighty rivers-- with my best girl by my side-- to ask the following medical question (which suggests a theme for whole show, that is, the question does, not the leaping bit): every once in a while I will wake up - I think it's usually when I've been lying on my back - and as I look around the room I seem to see a red disk that seems to float around the dark room as I look around tracking wherever my gaze wanders. (I figure that it probably is some kind of phosphene caused by blood pooling in the macula of the retina or something similar.) Is this a common enough phenomenon to have a known cause or should I get checked for brain tumors?
I believe it would be a really interesting to dedicate a whole show to cover these kinds of neurological illusions like some of those I found at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/3350191/The-upside-down-world-of-illusions.html when I searched for that term on Google, things like the "gorilla in our midst", the Pinocchio illusion, the phantom third arm, the McGurk Effect etc.
Conrad Berube
What do you think?