Can a static (non-flashing) image set off an epileptic seizure?

[Koxinga]

Bored at work today, browsing through Cracked and found the image linked below as part of a series of "counterproductive public service announcements." On the page (http://www.cracked.com/photoplasty_140_17-counterproductive-public-service-announcements/) itself it says, "We did have an additional entry in this contest, but we learned that the image may be considered a health hazard to anyone with photosensitive epilepsy, so we took it down."

The image is here, and I suppose Cracked's warning stands for anyone who has photosensitive epilepsy:

http://i.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/photoshop/6/3/7/31637.gif?v=1http://i.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/photoshop/6/3/7/31637.gif?v=1

My question is: really? Can a static image like that set off a seizure? Why?

If it's true, then I suppose whoever created that image (1) knows a bit about epilepsy, and (2) has a sense of humor that is just that more vile (and funny) as a result.

[jjimm]

I think there's something up with your browser: that is a flashing a animated gif.

[Koxinga]

:smack: Well, that would make more sense then, wouldn't it? True, though, I can't see it flashing.

[jackdavinci]

Yeah that link is a flashing gif. Not static.

However, there are some static images from a certain genre of optical illusion (http://www.coolopticalillusions.com/eye-tricks/optic-pictures/moving-spiral-illusion-1152.gif) that appear to be moving.

[ftg]

I can imagine an image based on "count the black dots" (http://www.123opticalillusions.com/pages/opticalillusions44.php) effect might be a problem for some people.

[Gedd]

I don’t know if you still need the answer to the original question but yes, a static image could trigger a seizure. Only about 10% of epileptics are photosensitive (meaning visual stigmatization can cause a seizure) but flashing lights, certain patterns, contrasting images such as black and white, and even extreme depth perception can set one off.

I have epilepsy and I get random ones that mostly make things look and sound really odd; from experience, observation, and moving houses we found they usually happened while watching TV in a room with a big blank wall in my field of vision. It never happened while watching TV in any other rooms in either house. After the first time it happened in our new house we hung a few pictures on that wall and it hasn’t happened since. It could be a coincidence, but given how little we know about epilepsy I’m not ruling anything out.

Sorry I don't have a cite, this is mostly from conversations with doctors and personal experience.

[Koxinga]

Wow -- thanks for sharing your experience. I was genuinely curious, and hope it didn't sound like I was making fun of the condition or anything.

I did have a followup question, though: I've also heard that there are certain frequencies of strobe-like flashing lights that would trigger a seizure in anybody, not just people with epilepsy. Is that an urban legend?

[Gedd]

Sounds like an urban legend to me. Considering all the different frequencies in movies, TV shows, strobe lights, flickering light bulbs, etc you think there would be a lot more seizures out there.

If you want to get really stingy though, some people consider deja vu to be a kind of seizure. I don't know about it being triggered by visual stimuli though. (Of course it could just be a change in the Matrix).

[LouisB]

At a young age, I witnessed a person having a grand mal epileptic seizure brought on by a rolling TV image. Scared me horribly.

[thelurkinghorror]

Yeah that link is a flashing gif. Not static.

However, there are some static images from a certain genre of optical illusion (http://www.coolopticalillusions.com/eye-tricks/optic-pictures/moving-spiral-illusion-1152.gif) that appear to be moving.

I think that's the work of Akioshi KITAOKA (http://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/~akitaoka/index-e.html). Lots of eye-strain images on there, and they're not animated.

[BigT]

Definitely. It's not the flashing, it's the brain overprocessing the image. I had to avoid very busy images with a lot of straight lines in early benzowithdrawal, or I would start feeling like I was going to have a seizure. Some of friends from another board mentioned it actually caused them some.

For me, I would just have an experience similar to that described when taking mushrooms--with the room "breathing."

[flodnak]

I belong to a Facebook group of people who like trawling a huge classified ad website (finn.no if you're curious) for intersting pictures. A large number of these are in homes-for-sale ads, often featuring some of the busiest and loudest wallpapers known to man. I used to share some of my favorites with my teenaged son, who has epilepsy, until he told me that some of the photos were giving him sensations very much like the aura (or prodrome if you prefer) he gets before a seizure. Close enough to spook him.

Just to make this more confusing, he doesn't seem to be photosensitive!

I'm not going to experiment further with my own kid's health, but I don't want to say that a static image can NEVER trigger a seizure. In limited circumstances, maybe.

[coffeecat]

Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photosensitive_epilepsy) and eMedicine (http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1187259-overview) say flashing is worse, but it's not always absolutely necessary:
In pattern-sensitive epilepsies, seizures are produced by particular visual patterns. These triggers may consist of circles, stripes, or other patterns, usually of high contrast. Oscillating or moving patterns are more highly epileptogenic.
Going further afield into, what to me is fascinating weirdness:
Some of the most unusual and intriguing disorders in neurology are the reflex epilepsies in which seizures are provoked by complex actions or mental processes. Examples of these include . . . reading . . . mathematical calculations . . . playing chess or checkers . . . eating . . . the sight or smell of food . . . micturition, toothbrushing, walking, and answering the telephone.

[Gedd]

Fortunately I've never had one from brushing my teeth . . .

The brain just likes screwing with us. That's how you can have an epileptic who is fine around strobe lights but has a seizure later when he gets home and smells his wife's stroganoff.

Stupid brain.

[flodnak]

WARNING: If you have epilepsy, use your judgement about whether to click on the following link. For the rest of you, this will just be one of the ugliest rooms you've ever seen.

This photo (http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs556.snc3/30426_431784780589_676260589_6036862_178338_n.jpg) is one of the ones my son identified as really triggering some weirdness in his brain. I think it may be because there are so many patterns competing for attention, two of which are both high-contrast and repetitive. The slight flicker of a computer monitor screen, which normally doesn't bother him, may made things worse than if he'd been in the room in person.

[[cc]]

I wonder if a moire effect such as from a fence could trigger a seizure?

On a somewhat related note.. here is BLIT (http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/blit.htm), a really great short sci-fi story by David Langford dealing with the concept of a dangerous static image.

[brossa]

I had a form of childhood epilepsy which I outgrew by about age seven. For years after that, however, certain static visual stimuli would give me the 'aura' feeling that others have described. For me, there were three types of stimuli that were troublesome.

The first, and most commonly encountered, was discontinuous stripes, like you would get if you took a striped sheet and wrinkled it up slightly to produce breaks in the lines. The second was 'scale violation'; seeing something that should be small blown up to large size. My first memory of this was seeing large paper snowflakes taped to a window; I had real trouble with that. Later I realized that the stimulus didn't have to be visual -- a friend's grandfather was telling me about his machine shop and how he could make a giant screw with threads a handspan apart, and I got hit with the feeling again. The third was seeing roads that run straight downhill then sharply uphill again in a V configuration.

These things happened with decreasing frequency over time, and it's been many years since I've really felt that disjointed aura sensation. However, looking at vertically striped patterns still makes me uncomfortable, and there are roads that I try to avoid driving on if possible.