The visual hallucinatory response to flickering polychromatic light.
Elliott, Mark
Elliott, Mark
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Publication Date
2004
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Conference Paper
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Becker, C., & Elliott, M.A. (2004). The visual hallucinatory response to flickering polychromatic light. in A.M. Oliveira, M. Teixeira, G.F. Borges & M.J. Ferro. (Eds.). Fechner Day 2004. Proceedings of the Twentieth Annual Meeting of the International Society of Psychophysics. Coimbra, Portugal. The International Society for Psychophysics, (pp. 146-151).
Abstract
Our understanding of human visual perception generally rests on the assumption that conscious visual states represent, in some qualitative fashion, a complex interaction between spatially structured variations in the ambient optic array and our visual nervous systems. The existence of visual hallucinations in a number of pathologies (e. g. Kolmel, 1984) as well as in experimental contexts (Fechner, 1838; Benham, 1895; Herrmann & Elliott, 2001; Knoll & Kugler, 1959) questions the assumption that what we see in the environment is necessarily determined by spatial structure in the distal stimulus. Here we show that complex colour and form hallucinations are evoked by flickering light and that the type of hallucination varies with flicker frequency flicker phase and the occurrence of other flicker induced hallucinations. This evidence supports theories of consciousness that stress temporal aspects of perceptual processing.
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The International Society for Psychophysics
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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Ireland