The prominence of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland can be
felt even within the medical community, with a unique syndrome names for the
title character. Alice in Wonderland Syndrome (AIWS), first names in 1955 by
Dr. John Todd, is a series of symptoms based in space and object perception.
Object appear distorted, sometimes bigger, sometimes smaller, than they really
are. Some suffers also find that it affects the the perception of their own
bodies in relation to the environatment around them or even the perceived passage
of time. AIWS can be caused by
abnormal amounts of electrical activity causing abnormal blood flow in the
parts of the brain that process visual perception and texture. The
syndrome is most often linked to migraines, brain tumors, and the onset of
certain viruses. The hallucinations can occur several times a day, and it is
speculated that Lewis Carroll’s well-documented migraines that presented with Lilliputian hallucinations* could
have been inspiration for the size distortion scenes in the books.
* Lilliputian
hallucination in which things, people, or animals seem smaller than they would
be in real life. Lilliputian refers to the "little people" who lived
(fictionally) on the island of Lilliput in Jonathan Swift's 1726 masterpiece Gulliver's Travels.
Photo 1 credit: www.aiws.info
Photo 2 credit: www.yurtopic.com
No comments:
Post a Comment