Corona phenomenon

Klee and Willanger (1966) have introduced the term corona phenomenon to account for the visual illusion of an extra edge around an object.

"I've always had a type of visual aura... Once I'm in the headache things glow with a blue/purple aura, quite beautiful actually except for the damned pain. I also get the creative stuff before my headaches, but I'm so busy anticipating the onset of pain and trying to get everything done before that I don't have time to pay attention to it.... alas, if only I didn't have the blasted pain, I sometimes think migraines would be almost fun. I remember reading somewhere that great writers/artists and mystics had episodes of migraine -- also that it led to a deeper spiritual trance state, etc."

(Natalie Natalie McNair-Huff, Newsgroups: alt.support.headaches.migraine, Subject: I Just Found This Group, July 18, 1996)

"A few weeks ago, I left work at night and was disturbed when the street lights had a distorted image, like when you have tears in your eyes. I can see the light bulb just fine, but the distortion circles around it. Ever since then, I've noticed hazy glows around lights at night as well as starburst firework streaks from car lights. I had a full eye workup and exam that showed no problems. The teary distortion went away that night, but it has reoccured 3 weeks later. I notice that the distortion goes away completely when I close my right eye, and I have been having headaches a lot. Also, bright lights in stores bother me a lot now where I find myself almost squinting. I've also developed tinnitus shortly before the visual problems which I understand is common with migraines."

(Alvin, Newsgroups: alt.support.headaches.migraine, Subject: Does This Sound Like Ocular Migraines?, December 3, 2002)

"One particularly memorable halo I had before a migraine had my vision going incredibly fuzzy around the edges. Grainy like purple nightvision, with bright specks exploding across it. The bright specks were similar to the afterimage you get from staring at the sun. Interestingly I had the same visuals on shrooms. As the halo came on I was talking to my flatmate in the hall and I remember him suddenly seeming distant and muted. At which point I thought dully 'huh, I should take some paracetamol.' It was quite a weird migraine though because I remember being so out of it that I became strangely calm and eventually fell asleep."

(Nobody's Girl, BARBELITH Underground, June 12, 2004)

"I will see colours around objects, double images (as if image shifted over part way beside itself) etc. It is difficult to recall exactly as I've been like this for years and don't even think about it."

('did, Newsgroups: alt.support.headaches.migraines, Subject: Extra contours around objects, Removed message, October 26, 2005)

"Oh, Jesus, yes. It is maddening. You can't find the damned EDGE -- the REAL edge -- of anything small because there is a light band and a coloured band around the edge of each small close-up object (e.g. a finger), especially in bright sunny light. The coloured band is the same colour as the object, often actually a displaced 'clone-stamped' (think Adobe Photoshop) version of it, even down to minute pores (as on a finger) and it 'floats' just off from the actual edge of the thing. The light band is quite thin, almost white. In dim light both bands, the 'clone' and the light, almost disappear.

When this effect is happening, I can't thread a needle, can't draw small detailed images (I am a graphic designer), can't do mechanical paste-ups, can't even find the end of my own finger! If I squint REAL HARD, the bands kind of dim-out, due to reduced light intake, but they don't go away.

For years I thought everyone saw this stuff. I was amazed and, at first (30 years ago, not now) a bit frightened to learn that not many people saw these things at all.

Then I began reading about migraines and also studying my own oddities of eyesight (strabismus, lateral nystagmus, myopia, etc.) and I saw how the whole package of visual weirdness fit together, and then, being an artist, I came to enjoy it and relax with it. Nowadays, depending on my pain level or degree of sleepiness, I find this visual effect either fascinating (when sleepy and not in much pain) or maddening (when in high pain while trying to work on a graphics project under deadline pressure).

The invention of computer graphics has enabled me to work despite this problem of vision, because I can enlarge graphics on the screen to many thousands of percent of their size, and that allows me to regain the lost precision that occurs when the extra contours are in evidence and I can't see the edges of things.

By the way, this phenomenon is not confined to prodrome aura -- it can occur with 'silent' non-painful migraines or in any bright-light situation during a migrainous phase.

Cordially,
cat yronwode"

(Catherine Yronwode, Newsgroups: alt.support.headaches.migraines, Subject: Extra contours around objects, October 29, 2005)

"For me the colour of the 'false contour' is bright bluish-whitish when there's a migraine on -- otherwise it is red or green or whatever flash-colour is the opposite the colour of the object on a colour wheel."

(Catherine Yronwode, Newsgroups: alt.support.headaches.migraines, Subject: Extra contours around objects, October 29, 2005)

"Ever see heat sensors? They are like that except you can see the person and then all this squiggly stuff around them and lights. Like a bad drug trip... I see colors around the person, the person can be fully in focus they might go in and out of focus, but the ends blur and colors come up like a swirl but seemingly like the person is radiating colors. If I gaze at a light the light does a sunburst effect. I'll also have black spots that then fill in with different colors mostly on the grey scale but also in the technicolor variety too on occasion."

(mkiero, LiveJournal for Support Group for Migraine Sufferers, Subject: What are auras?, December 13 and 15, 2005)

Witch sight – or corona phenomenon heralding migraine headaches?

"It can as a shock to me when I started to develop psychic skills as I practiced Wicca [Witchcraft, or Wicca Craeft, or The Craft, a neopagan, earth-centered religion]. I am now able to channel healing energy through my hands - when it first started I had no idea what it was or what was happening to me. It felt like my life force was bleeding away from my wrists (that's where I feel the energy come through, the palm side of my wrists). Dreams have also become more important. I remember them more, and some of them have been of great importance. Additionally, I developed something which I call, for lack of a better term (please do not be offended) 'witch sight,' which is where I can SEE the energy surrounding people, animals, even telephone and electrical wires. When that first started happening I thought I was going into my migraine headaches! Now that I know what's going on with the energy and the sight skills, the gifts do not come unbidden, but it sure did surprise me. After all, I became Wiccan to worship the Goddess, not to develop psychic skills. I believe everyone has latent psychic abilities of some sort. So I now look upon these skills as gifts from the Lady; they were always there, but now I get to use them."

(Dianne McKinzie, Newsgroups: alt.religion.wicca.moderated, Subject: psychic ability, October 30, 1999; additions in square brackets by Klaus Podoll)

Are you acquainted with similar phenomena associated with your migraine attacks? Please contact Dr Klaus Podoll if you wish to share and discuss your experiences.

References

Klee A, Willanger R. Disturbances of visual perception in migraine. Acta Neurol Scand 1966; 42: 400-414.
Podoll K, Robinson D. Corona phenomenon as visual aura symptom in migraine. Cephalalgia 2001; 21: 712-717.
Podoll K, Robinson D. Migraine Art - The Migraine Experience from Within. North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, California 2009, p. 2268-272.