![“Phosphenes,” from Andrew Coulter Enright.
The inimitable S. Stratodrive informed me that the phenomenon in which one one sees spiralling, luminescing mosaics and masses of ghostly color when one presses one’s hands into one’s eyes is “an entropic phenomenon called a ‘pressure phosphene’ and it’s a result of stimulating your retinal ganglion cells.” He also shared that it’s sometimes called “prisoner’s cinema” by those in the darkness of jail.
The stimulation of these cells need not be manual: phosphenes can also result from magnetic fields, radiation, drugs, standing too quickly, or other conditions. Amazingly, astronauts report seeing phosphenes, presumably due to the radiation they encounter in space.
This is evidently because the high-energy particle radiation in space, blocked for us by our atmosphere, activates the cells responsible for detecting light; while I initially assumed this meant that, in a sense, we see such radiation (in a beautiful kaleidoscopic way), another author suggests a different explanation:
These ionizing radiation-induced free radicals generate chemiluminescent photons from lipid peroxidation, which are absorbed by the photoreceptor chromophores, modify[ing] the rhodopsin molecules (bleaching) and start[ing] the photo-transduction cascade resulting in the perception of phosphene lights.
I’m sure Jack can comment further, but I would note that (1) I think phosphenes are beautiful and, in their demonstration of the lower-order processes of our perceptions, fascinating; (2) I learned the word “psychoplasticity” while reading about this; and (3) the image above is a composite of photographs of lightstick chemicals poured into a toilet; I was searching for representations of phosphenes, which I’d like to see, and it was the best I found.
Update: be sure to read the King of Joy’s excellent corrections and expansions on this subject, on his fine site or in the comment below. Thanks, Ben!](http://17.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kqpkqdTBYR1qz6ivco1_400.jpg)
“Phosphenes,” from Andrew Coulter Enright.
The inimitable S. Stratodrive informed me that the phenomenon in which one one sees spiralling, luminescing mosaics and masses of ghostly color when one presses one’s hands into one’s eyes is “an entropic phenomenon called a ‘pressure phosphene’ and it’s a result of stimulating your retinal ganglion cells.” He also shared that it’s sometimes called “prisoner’s cinema” by those in the darkness of jail.
The stimulation of these cells need not be manual: phosphenes can also result from magnetic fields, radiation, drugs, standing too quickly, or other conditions. Amazingly, astronauts report seeing phosphenes, presumably due to the radiation they encounter in space.
This is evidently because the high-energy particle radiation in space, blocked for us by our atmosphere, activates the cells responsible for detecting light; while I initially assumed this meant that, in a sense, we see such radiation (in a beautiful kaleidoscopic way), another author suggests a different explanation:
These ionizing radiation-induced free radicals generate chemiluminescent photons from lipid peroxidation, which are absorbed by the photoreceptor chromophores, modify[ing] the rhodopsin molecules (bleaching) and start[ing] the photo-transduction cascade resulting in the perception of phosphene lights.
I’m sure Jack can comment further, but I would note that (1) I think phosphenes are beautiful and, in their demonstration of the lower-order processes of our perceptions, fascinating; (2) I learned the word “psychoplasticity” while reading about this; and (3) the image above is a composite of photographs of lightstick chemicals poured into a toilet; I was searching for representations of phosphenes, which I’d like to see, and it was the best I found.
Update: be sure to read the King of Joy’s excellent corrections and expansions on this subject, on his fine site or in the comment below. Thanks, Ben!
