Visual hallucinations evoked by caloric vestibular stimulation in normal humans.

This study describes a hitherto unknown phenomenon in healthy humans: visual hallucinations evoked by caloric vestibular stimulation. The hallucinations are of elementary type. The following quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the hallucinatory images were measured: latency, duration, location in the visual field, relation to the provoked vertigo, colour of the hallucinatory image and the background, number, size, shape, distance from the eyes, and motion. Two mechanisms are proposed to explain the genesis of these hallucinations. One mechanism is direct: change in the spontaneous activity of the visual system in several levels; the other mechanism is indirect: transient haemodynamic disturbance in the visual system.