Table 2.
A representative, but not exhaustive, list of reported visual disturbances.
| Symptom | Description |
|---|---|
| Symptom Reported by Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder, fifth edition (DSM-5) | |
| Visual hallucinations | Perceptions in the absence of the objects. False perceived objects are often geometric figures. |
| Altered motion perception | False perceptions of movement in the peripheral visual fields |
| Flashes of color | |
| Color enhancement | Perception of intensified colors |
| Trails or tracers | Lines, stripes or bands that could be observed after animate and inanimate objects have already moved from their previous location. According to DSM-5, images left suspended in the path of a moving object as seen in stroboscopic photography |
| Palinopsia | Positive afterimages that continue to appear in one’s vision after the exposure to the original image has ceased. |
| Halos | Colored light around a light source or an object |
| Micropsia | Misperception of images as too small |
| Macropsia | Misperception of images as too large |
| Common Symptoms Not Reported by DSM-5 | |
| Floaters | Spots that seem to drift in front of the eye |
| Visualizations | Dots, points, particles, mottles or specks emerging in an obscure room |
| Fractals | Self-similarity perception or small parts that are seen having an equal and identical shape or form as the whole |
| Repetitions | Recurrence of inanimate or moving patterns or motives |
| Keenness | Undimmed color contrasts |
| Pareidolia | An image within an image like the imagery of objects or faces in a foggy arrangement |
| Superimpositions | Superimposed or overlapped geometric patterns |
| Distorted Perception of Distance | Objects were seen slightly closer or distant |
| Monochromatic Vision | The visual perception of distinct colors as one unique color with different tinges and tonalities |
| Intense fragmentation | The sense of disintegration of still or moving objects |
| Recurrent Synesthesia | Stimulation of one sensory pathway leads to automatic, involuntary reactions or experiences in a second sensory pathway |
| Geometric Phosphenes | Seeing light without light penetrating the eye. |
| Imagistic Phosphenes | Casual and unplanned formed images like non-humans (zoopsia) and human faces without geometric patterns or figures provoked by closing an eye and pressing it with a finger |
| Acquired Dyslexia | Difficulty with reading notwithstanding normal intelligence |
| Aeropsia or Visual Snow | Virtually seeing particles of air |