How is it possible for nothing but flashing lights to cause a seizure?
In: Biology
TLDR; Still under research, best described as “Abnormal Nerve Pattern that is constantly firing because of too much light”
Answer: You can compare this to that certain sound wave that caused glass to break, among other very weird things. Broadly speaking, beyond the retina, these areas are very bad at handling highly intense, highly synchronous stimuli (the flashing lights). Some research has suggested there is a certain pathway (google “parvocellular pathway”) is unable to restore a balance to the stimuli, and thus, repeated neuron firing in one or multiple areas of the brain occurs.
With that, this type of epilepsy represents a small percent of the population, which makes it a bit difficult to study (visual processing diverges a BUNCH throughout species)
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