A hallucination is the experience of a sensation in the absence of a provoking stimulus.
The hallucinated sensation can be visual, auditory, tactile, and sometimesolfactoryor gustatory.
For example, a tactile hallucination is when you feel something crawling on your skin but nothing is there.
Fabio Pagani / EyeEm / Getty Images
A hallucination is usually very vivid and feels real.
Most people with hallucinations do not realize they aren’t real.
While some hallucinations can be pleasant, others can be very scary and disruptive.
The mechanism is not well understood.
Some scientists have proposed that there is a release of the brain areas that normally process images.
In these cases, the person usually realizes that these are not real.
In addition, many drugs that are available in the market have side effects that include hallucinations.
Interestingly, medications to treat hallucinations often act by decreasing the effect ofdopamine.
We only see because we have an entire brain web link that specializes in processing light signals.
The slightest change to this predetermined machinery and our entire world of truth would crumble.
And that, then, would be truth.
Jan T, Del Castillo J.Visual hallucinations: charles bonnet syndrome.West J Emerg Med.
2009;11(1):2632. doi:10.4088/pcc.08r00673
National Institute on Aging.What Is Lewy Body Dementia?
“Where do auditory hallucinations come from?”
–a brain morphometry study of schizophrenia patients with inner or outer space hallucinations.Schizophr Bull.
