A term used to denote arelatively rare type of epilepsy in which a *visual aura is either the initial or sole ictal manifestation. Phenomenologically, epileptic visual aurae typically consist of *photopsias or *simple hallucinations consisting of multiple dots, spots, disks, stars, balls of light, * halos, streaks, and sometimes * fortification spectra. These aurae are often in colour. They may be stationary, but they are often described as flickering, pulsating, twinkling, expanding, contracting, or otherwise moving. Even rarer are * complex hallucinations, * illusions, * metamorphopsias, and distortions of colour. The duration of these epileptic visual aurae tends to be of the order of seconds rather than minutes. Pathophysiologically, visual epilepsy is associated chiefly with irritative activation of neural circuits within the visual pathways. Etiologically, it is associated primarily with conditions such as tumours, developmental malformations, and traumatic injuries.
References
Wilkinson, F. (2004). Auras and other hallucinations: Windows on the visual brain. Progress in Brain Research, 144, 305-320.
Dictionary of Hallucinations. J.D. Blom. 2010.