A nearly perfect example how to trigger a migraine attack on YouTube
The members of ArtOfficial, a jazz/hip-hop fusion group from Miami Florida, turn out to be experts in neuroscience! Apply directly to yo’ primary visual cortex—Please bang (and watch) responsibly!
Two days ago, YouTube disabled my migraine video. It might be due to a copyright violation, because I used Google's homepage to illustrate the progression of a typical visual field defect in migraine. But I guess more likely is that YouTube feared that watching my video might trigger a migraine attack.
Well I do research in this direction and cooperate with other scientists that have also studied this problem [1-3]. It's true, visual stimuli are common triggers of migraine. In my video, however, I deliberately used a low contrast such that triggering a migraine attack is very unlikely. In addition, I placed a clear warning at the beginning of the video.
I think, my video did a great job in raising awareness and educating people, therefore, I asked yesterday for help on Twitter to get back my video online. Thereby, I stumbled over this tweet.
Well, 10 000 views in two weeks is not too bad. I checked out the video and was first shocked but meanwhile ...
After only 11 seconds a sudden bright light flash appears in the shape of a Gabor filter, caused by the headlight of a van with a man standing in front of it.
Many of your neurons in the visual cortex that favor vertical edges are now on fire. Yes, that light flash perfectly matched to their receptive field. Just a few seconds later, neurons placed about 100µm away in opposite iso-orientation domains of the visual cortex are stimulated in a similar manner, they prefer horizontally oriented edges.
Holly moses! Are the members of this hip-hop group from Miami experts in neuroscience? Miami Florida? Wait, I once blogged about Dwyane Wade—a basketball player nicknamed Flash and playing for the Miami Heat—who wore tinted goggles to counter the light in the arena. It is hard for me to pay attention to the lyrics but this cannot be an accident, can it?
There are more bright lights, now they are moving, that is, neurons in visual area V5 are stimulated, also known as visual area MT (middle temporal).
This is higher up in the hierarchy of areas in the visual cortex. MT is a region playing a major role in the perception of motion. Well done. Now, just a little later, two light bars each with two rotating beacons. Bright flashing colors! Nice. We are going back in the visual hierarchy to the early areas.
And finally again directly into yo’ visual cortex:
I have no idea what is going on here, and, as I said, I have not yet understood all the lyrics. But if you are Dwyane Wade, you should wear your tinted goggles watching this video, as should everybody else suffering from migraines. By the way, goggles, Google: could you please bring back my video online? It is not that bad after all, is it?
References
[3] Karanovic O, Thabet M, Wilson HR, Wilkinson F. Detection and discrimination of flicker contrast in migraine. Cephalalgia. 2011 Apr;31(6):723-36.
HipHop & Jazz, cool! But beware not to be sued for a copyright violation (for using the YouTube pictures)! ;-)
Each of the still images are cited for a solid scientific reason. In fact, I'm writing up a paper that is partly inspired by this blog post.
Hello,
Your video got pulled from YouTube because of concerns about copyright violation. Google and other major companies are extremely vigilant about the unauthorized use of their logos. Google doesn't have to complain about this; it would be considered due diligence by YouTube to simply remove it to eliminate any risk to them.
YouTube exercises an abundance of caution in its removal of trademarked images. If you do the same simulation using a piece of artwork in the public domain (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Public_domain_image_resources), then it will likely be fine.
OK, holy cow, you got a migraine aura notification from YouTube! Wow, I had no idea such a thing existed! So please disregard my previous comment. Another thing I've learned from reading your blog. Love it!
Thanks for this fantastic videos
I think it`s youtube revolution