What are they? Flashes and flashes in the eyes, also called photopsia, are ?flashes? of light that you can witness without receiving a light stimulus from outside, so that you perceive them as if they were generated inside the eyeball, even with your eyes closed.
If you try to close your eyes, you will appreciate that sometimes you can see colors. This strange ability happens even when there is no prior light stimulus. Is it a visual hallucination? Do you have some kind of scientific explanation? Scholars have been working for a long time to unlock the secret of phosphenes.
These phenomena refer to the sensation of «seeing» points of light as a result of magnetic, electrical, or mechanical stimuli to the retina and visual cortex. For example, it is much easier to feel the colors if we squint our eyes. Does this happen as a delayed result of receiving a strong light stimulus?
What are the causes of photopsia?
When talking about the causes, it is possible to name multiple sources that can cause desquamation, some do not have to cause any kind of concern, while with others it is necessary to attend an ophthalmological request to investigate and decide to rule out any other affectation that manages to be associated with health anomalies.
Among the most common causes of photopsia are blows to the eyes. These types of occasions can change in severity depending on the intensity of the trauma, but, as an established rule, they do not represent a risk to ocular health.
Can they be treated?
Floaters, while they can be really uncomfortable, don’t have huge eye health consequences and aren’t usually treated as long as they’re benign and don’t compromise vision too much. If the flies significantly limit vision, it is possible to carry out 2 treatments:
- laser vitreolysis, using the surgical YAG laser, which fragments the opacities so that they do not alter the vision of the tolerant; either
- vitrectomy, surgery used in situations where floaters cause visual impairment and consisting of the replacement of the vitreous humor by a saline solution.
the sense of vision
The last aspect is the one that causes the color with which we observe things to be much more subjective. We talk about our vision.
At the moment the light reflected by the elements reaches our eyes, the photoreceptor cells of the retina are dedicated to transforming this information into electrical pulses that it transmits to the brain where it is finally interpreted. Well, not everyone has exactly the same type or proportion of these light-sensitive cells, and this causes each subject to see shades slightly differently.