[imagesource:gencraftai]

Anyone who suffers from migraines will tell you just how debilitating these ‘headaches’ can be. But it’s not just the pain that freaks sufferers out, but some of the symptoms that go with it.

One of the strangest symptoms is weird psychedelic patterns that float around in front of your eyes. But what are they?

These strange patterns are called migraine auras, and although they don’t affect everyone who gets migraines, they typically present as zigzag lines, circles, flickering lights, or blind spots – often in vivid and under different circumstances, beautiful psychedelic colours.

Migraines are the most common headaches and affect approximately 12% of people. There are still a lot of unanswered questions about what happens during a migraine, but it is thought to be caused by ‘neuronal malfunction’, which triggers a series of events in the brain.

Dr Christian Lucas says that around 15% of ‘migraineurs’ experience auras.

“Aura is a fully reversible focal neurological phenomenon involving visual, sensory, speech, or motor symptoms that develop gradually and usually precede the headache phase.”

“Visual aura is the most common type of aura […] It often presents as a fortification spectrum: a zigzag figure near the point of fixation that may gradually spread right or left and assume a laterally convex shape with an angulated scintillating edge, leaving absolute or variable degrees of relative [blind spot] in its wake.”

Some of the evidence points to a condition called cortical spreading depression (CSD) which sweeps across the cerebral cortex part of the brain. It can alter the way blood flows in the brain, and cause neurological conditions and symptoms like those pretty auras.

The changes to the blood flow in the brain trigger neurotransmitters, which affect sensory pathways that control different sensations. The visual pathways affected are likely responsible for the colours and visual weirdness.

“Visual aura is the most common type of aura: a zigzag figure near the point of fixation that may gradually spread right or left and assume a laterally convex shape with an angulated scintillating edge, leaving absolute or variable degrees of a relative blind spot in its wake.”

Migraine aura is not particularly harmful, although it might be misdiagnosed in more serious cases where the visuals are caused by something like a “mini-stroke”.

Likely the only perk of these auras is that they act as a warning for those suffering from migraines. Once the world turns into a kaleidoscope, you know the countdown has begun.

[source:ifls]