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Comment by stephengillie | Hacker News Reader

This is close to how it feels when I get a "migraine flash". 2 differences - letters you're not looking at directly (a line or 2 down the page) don't move or jump.

Often, key letters will just completely disappear. In their place is...a kind of grey blank that your mind jumps over. You could swear there's something there, and you can see it when you move your eyes quickly across the word, or out of the corner of your eye when you read the previous or next word, but it disappears when you steady your eyes on that word.

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I agree, as a migraine sufferer the vision aspect of migraines often looks like a "heat shimmer" film over everything, and this site resembles that.

> This is close to how it feels when I get a "migraine flash". 2 differences - letters you're not looking at directly (a line or 2 down the page) don't move or jump.

This could be a freaky/fun thing to do as a VR demo.

Or one of the eye tracking kits.

This sounds like scintillating scotoma: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scintillating_scotoma

It doesn't: the GP didn't mention any scintillation.

My aura was similar to their description. I would be reading, and the words before or after the current one would be gone. I figured it was the migraine disrupting the visual processing parts of the brain so much so that the automatic filling in of the blind spot stopped working.

I thought the blind spot was out near the periphery of your vision , not near the center

The optic disc is quite close to the macula, which has the most cone-rich area of the retina (the fovea) & is where light is focused by the lens.

I used to experience weird "I know there's something there but can't see it" (e.g., words, my hand) at particular angles from the center of what I was looking at. It turned out that my blood pressure was so low that I was very near to fainting. It was especially bad on days when I was dehydrated, which was the big clue. Once I started drinking water much more often, the experience hasn't happened again.

I realize there are people experiencing migraines and other painful experiences, but if you have occasional "I can't see right / my head hurts" experiences, consider seeing if drinking a lot more water helps. ;)

That sounds like 'Troxler's Fading'. I get it all the time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troxler%27s_fading

It's also related to that optical illusion with the cross and circle, where one seems to vanish when you stare at the other.

I use to have it, then disappeared on its own. This description is really good, I was never able to describe it

This sounds related to unintentional blindness, which is sometimes a result of having some serious brain related issue, such as a stroke.

"migraine flash" might be "potential serious brain issue", I would pay close attention if you've got low/high blood pressures, abnormal blood, obese/anorexic.

Disclaimer: I'm not a medical professional, but I wouldn't play off something like this.

When I was little, they did an MRI and found everything normal. A few years ago, the ER said they thought it was a partial seizure, one that only hits part of the brain, and part is unaffected.

Not sure why I was down-voted, from what you've said and from personal experience (working on support systems for patients of strokes), it seems as though there's reason to believe cause and effect.

Unless brain damage was done, it's quite likely you can train yourself out of this habit by the way. One method I heard that works is to wear an elastic band, whenever you do it twang yourself on the wrist.

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