TELEVISIONINDUCED HALLUCINATION

The notion of television-induced hallucination refers to a type of hallucination uniquely provoked by television viewing. This type of hallucination is believed to be extremely rare. The first case report of hallucinations co-occurring with television viewing was published in 1976 by the Australian neurologist James Waldo Lance (b. 1926). The first case report of hallucinations co-occurringexclusivelywith television viewing was published in 1981 by the Swiss neuro-ophthalmologists Avinoam B. Safran et al. Both case reports involve * complex visual hallucinations. They were attributed to a preceding cerebral infarction complicated by epilepsy. Patho-physiologically, television-induced hallucinations are associated primarily with photic or photosensitive epilepsy, i.e. with flicker-induced focal epileptic seizures affecting either the occipital cortex (when * simple visual hallucinations are involved) or the temporal lobe (when *complex visual hallucinations are involved). In 1952 the American paediatrician Samuel Livingston (1908-1984) provided the first case report of television-induced epilepsy. Television-induced hallucinations may be classified as a special type of *photically induced hallucination. They should not be confused with the *TV sign.

Lance, J.W. (1976). Simple formed hallucinations confined to the area of a specific visual field defect.Brain, 99, 719-720.

Livingston, S. (1952). Comments on a study of light-induced epilepsy in children.American Journal of Diseases of Children, 83, 409-U0.

Safran, A.B., Kline, L.B., Glaser, J.S., Daroff, R.B. (1981). Television-induced formed visual hallucinations and cerebral diplopia.British Journal ofOphthalmology, 65, 707-711.