Re: Charles Bonnet syndrome (was 'musical hallucinations')

[Peter Meijer <peter.b.l.meijer@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Paul and All,

Sorry for going slightly off-topic in responding to Paul's note.

Just curious: might providing these people who are losing their
vision with meaningful visual information via an auditory display
be used to prevent/treat Charles Bonnet syndrome (inasfar as it
is considered a problem)? One conjecture could be that satisfying
the brain's craving for meaningful visual information would do
something here, and help "bind" mental imagery (via the visual
association cortex) to meaningful visual input rather than to
any internal "noise" while the person's biological vision keeps
deteriorating.

I read a page on the web stating that at present there is no known
cure or treatment for Charles Bonnet syndrome (CBS).

Best regards,

Peter Meijer


Seeing with Sound - The vOICe
http://www.seeingwithsound.com/winvoice.htm


> There is a type of visual hallucination that occurs in
> neuropsychiatrically normal individuals that is remarkable because it is
> like normal seeing, but the detail can be greater and have a bizarre
> character, sometimes even amusing. These hallucinations are not under
> voluntary control and when they occur in those with deteriorating visual
> ability it is described as the Charles Bonnet syndrome. Imaging studies
> show that the visual association cortex is active. It might be that the
> imagery mechanism in this case is providing a 'realistic' version. Does
> the process here have any relevance to the observations so far on
> musical hallucination?.
>
> Regards
> Paul Satchell