Prosopometamorphopsia: When Faces Turn Reptilian Dragons

The doctors changed her to an everyday regimen of rivastigmine, a medicine that is frequently utilized to treat symptoms of dementia caused by Alzheimer’s disease or Parkinson’s disease. The medication made these acoustic hallucinations much less frequent and minimized her visual signs and symptoms to a convenient degree.

For the majority of people that experience this condition, its distorting result on human faces lasts just a couple of days or weeks. PMO-triggered distortions have actually been understood to make people’s faces appear “demonic”– yet in the woman’s situation, it’s uncertain specifically what triggered her very details perception of reptilian dragons.

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For individuals with hemi-prosopometamorphopsia, or hemi-PMO, simply one side of the observed face is impacted. In full-face prosopometamorphopsia, or full-face PMO, distortion warps the entire face a person sees. The problem is associated with adjustments to brain structure and with conditions that affect brain function, such as migraine headache, epilepsy and stroke.

Diagnosis: Prosopometamorphopsia (PMO)

The medical diagnosis: The medical professionals determined that the female had a kind of prosopometamorphopsia (PMO). This unusual condition impacts exactly how an individual views human faces, making face features appear dramatically distorted. Features might appear shrunken or enlarged; they may sag, stretch sideways or wander out of setting.

The Symptoms: Dragon Faces

The signs and symptoms: The lady checked out an outpatient psychiatric clinic and told the physicians that when she took a look at people’s faces, she saw them change into the faces of dragons. She also saw dragon-like faces appear in front of her automatically, even when no people existed. These hallucinations were disturbing and influenced her ability to interact with individuals.

These lesions– which showed up in the protected circuitry of the brain, called white issue– may have been caused by tears in small capillary in the brain. The damage was not current, according to the report.

The person reported that human faces that seemed regular initially “transformed black, expanded long, sharp ears and a sticking out nose, and displayed a reptiloid skin and big eyes in brilliant yellow, green, blue, or red,” physicians composed in a record of her case. She added that she had experienced these hallucinations considering that youth.

Mindy Weisberger is an editor at Scholastic and a previous Live Scientific research channel editor and senior author. She has actually reported on basic scientific research, covering climate change, area, biology and paleontology. Mindy studied film at Columbia University; before Live Science she produced, created and routed media for the American Museum of Nature in New York City City. Her video clips concerning dinosaurs, astrophysics, biodiversity and advancement show up in museums and scientific research centers worldwide, making awards such as the CINE Golden Eagle and the Communicator Award of Excellence. Her writing has actually also appeared in Scientific American, The Washington Post and Just How It Works. She is the writer of the book “Increase of the Zombie Bugs: The Surprising Science of Parasitical Mind Control,” released by Hopkins Press.

Although the EEG did not expose any type of problems, the medical professionals suspected that the individual’s aesthetic hallucinations were triggered by irregular electric activity in parts of the mind that procedure colors and faces– especially, the ventral occipitotemporal cortex. This area, situated in the back of the mind, is involved in regulating object recognition. The sores exposed by the MRI might have activated this electric task, the physicians supposed, and they might have been present given that birth, maybe brought on by momentary oxygen starvation quickly prior to or after shipment.

What Happened Next: Brain Scans

What occurred next: Doctors at the center performed blood examinations, made use of a brain-scanning strategy called an electroencephalogram (EEG), and did a neurological assessment. Every one of the outcomes were normal. An MRI of the patient’s brain showed several sores near the lentiform nucleus. Damages to this component of the mind has actually been connected to cognitive problems, such as problems with focus and memory, particularly connected with schizophrenia.

The signs: The lady went to an outpatient psychiatric center and told the doctors that when she looked at individuals’s faces, she saw them transform into the faces of dragons. She likewise saw dragon-like faces show up in front of her automatically, even when no individuals were existing. The EEG did not expose any abnormalities, the physicians thought that the client’s aesthetic hallucinations were created by atypical electric activity in components of the brain that process shades and faces– specifically, the forward occipitotemporal cortex. For individuals with hemi-prosopometamorphopsia, or hemi-PMO, just one side of the observed face is impacted. In full-face prosopometamorphopsia, or full-face PMO, distortion buckles the whole face a person sees.

The Treatment: Valproic Acid

The therapy: The doctors suggested the patient day-to-day doses of valproic acid, an anticonvulsant that avoids seizures and likewise reduces migraine headaches and signs and symptoms of bipolar affective disorder. The treatment brought the woman’s aesthetic hallucinations under control.