Charles Bonnet Q&A

As part of our Charles Bonnet campaign, Dr John-Paul Taylor, Clinical Senior Lecturer and Consultant from the Newcastle University took part in a live Twitter question and answer session.

If you were unable to join the session, please find the full Q&A session below.

1. What causes visual hallucinations to occur?

Loss of vision mean brain cells firing more, which means more hallucinations. So if ++ firing in the “faces” part of the brain you see faces.

2. What are the most common hallucinations?

Two main types - simple hallucinations e.g. lines, geometric shapes etc. & complex hallucinations animals children people landscapes.

3. Do more people see nice hallucinations than they do scary hallucinations?

Probably about a third of people with CBS experience distressing hallucinations.

Sometimes it isn't the fact that they are scary. Rather they are disruptive to daily life - how to avoid that wall that appeared!

4. My hallucinations have been in finite detail. Is it random or related to the concept of genetic memory I often wonder?

In the main hallucinations vary considerably between people with #CBS in terms of what they see