Lecture 5 - concepts

Question 1

Prodromal Symptoms

Answer 1

Early signs or symptoms that precede the onset of a full-blown disorder, often seen in conditions like schizophrenia.

Question 2

Alice in Wonderland Syndrome (AIWS)

Answer 2

AIWS is a rare neurological condition characterized by distortions in perception, especially related to body size, shape, and spatial orientation. Individuals with AIWS often experience visual, auditory, and tactile distortions, but these are not true hallucinations. Instead, they involve misperceptions of actual stimuli.

A person with AIWS might perceive their own hand as much smaller or larger than it is, or feel that objects in the environment are distorted in size or distance.

Question 3

Micropsia and Macropsia

Answer 3

Micropsia is a distortion in which objects appear smaller than their actual size, while macropsia is when objects appear larger than they truly are. Both are common symptoms of AIWS.

Question 4

Prosopometamorphopsia

Answer 4

This refers to the distortion of facial features, where individuals perceive faces in a distorted or altered way. This can affect part or all of the face, leading to bizarre or unrecognizable perceptions of others’ faces.

Question 5

Visual Allochiria

Answer 5

Visual allochiria is a condition where a visual stimulus presented on one side of the body is perceived on the opposite side

Question 6

Visual Allachaesthesia

Answer 6

Visual allachaesthesia refers to a misperception where a stimulus is seen in a location different from where it actually is.

Question 7

Dysmorphopsia

Answer 7

Dysmorphopsia is the general term for distorted perception of shapes, typically of one’s own body or other objects.

A person might perceive their arm as being unusually thin or thick, or see a straight line as being bent or wavy.

Question 7

Inverted Vision (Environmental Tilt)

Answer 7

This is a perceptual distortion where the visual field is seen as rotated by 90 or 180 degrees, resulting in a sensation that the environment is unnaturally tilted.

A person with environmental tilt may perceive the world as being upside down or rotated to the side, despite being physically upright.

Question 8

Corona Phenomenon

Answer 8

A perceptual phenomenon in which an individual sees halos or glows around objects, particularly lights or bright objects. This can occur in a variety of neurological conditions, including AIWS.

Someone may look at a streetlamp and perceive it as having a glowing halo around it, even when no such glow exists.