A glossary of the neurological terms we tend to use without proving a definition in an attempt to make the site more accessible/understandable. PM or post here
any suggestions for new additions or modifications to current entries...or to point out where my alphabetising and spelling skills have gone wrong 
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Acephalgic Migraine Migraine with aura and visual symptoms but without pain/headache. Can include nausea but doesn't have to.
After Images Persisting image of objects or light source after looking away from it. Positive after images retain the original colours of the object so as to create a duplicate in ones vision. Negative afterimages produce an effect more like a photonegative, without original colours, usually just a coloured shape with areas of light and dark, often black and white, or other opposite colours, are interchanged.
Anticonvuslant A class of medicines, normally used in the treatment of epilepsy. They work by suppressing the rapid/excessive firing of neurons that can lead to seiziure. Anticonvulsants have been prescribied for VS sufferers with varying degrees of success, suggesting VS may be linked to over active neurons.
Atrial Septal Defect See PFO
Autokinesis A Visual Disturbance creating the illusion of movement where there is none.
Blue Field Entoptic Phenomenon The bright white dots some sufferers see moving across their vision when looking at they sky, thought to be blood cells moving through the blood vessels in the eye.
Clonazepam See Klono/Klonopin
Depersonalisation (DP) A Neurological symptom where the sufferer feels detatched from themsleves, as if observing their own actions from a third person perspective. Sufferers often also have numbed emotions, in that they don't experience normal emotional response to things.
Derealisation (DR) A Neurological symptom where the suffer feels as if the world around them is somehow unreal, or not physical in the normal sense.
DES Dry Eye Syndrome. A condition whereby the eyes do not produce sufficient tears, sufferers usually have to use artificial tears to prevent their eyes from drying up.
Floaters Floaters are deposits in the fluid of the eye. They can cast a visible, often moving shadow onto the eyes surface. These shadows can take a variety of shapes, from stringy "worms" to dots.
Ghosting A visual disturbance whereby the suffer can see faint after-image like replica's of objects, superimposed over the object and off-set slightly in one direction - usually only apparent when an object is moving. Very similar to trailing and afterimages/palinopsia so this term is sometimes used to refer to those.
Heat Haze A Visual disturbance that creates a similar visual effect to that of a heat haze/wave infront of an object, like a sheet of ripples.
HPPD Hallucinogen Persistent Perception Disorder - persistent visual disturbance resulting from use of hallucinogenic drugs/substances, e.g. LSD.
Keppra An anti-convulsant that has, in some cases, been used with varying degrees of success to treat VS symptoms
Keratoconjunctivitis Sicca See DES
Klono/Klonopin An anti-convulsant that has had limited success in a small number of cases as a VS treatment. Favoured in HPPD induced cases of VS.
Levetiracetam See Keppra
Mal De Debarquement (Syndrome)/MdDS Neurological syndrome caused by persistent motion, e.g. cruises/flights, symptoms similar to Vertigo.
Mouches Volantes: See Floaters
Musical Ear Syndrome (MES) Hearing phantom sounds (auditory hallucinations) of a non-psychiatric nature, often musical, but also including voices and other associated sounds, commonly found in, but not limited to, elderly, hard of hearing people with tinnitus who lack adequate sound stimulation.
Occular Migraine See Acephalgic Migraine
Optical Migraine See Acephalgic Migraine
Palinopsia Strong/Persisting after images
Paresthesia A sensation of tingling, pricking, or numbness of a person's skin with no apparent long-term physical effect. It is more generally known as the feeling of "pins and needles" or of a limb being "asleep". Paresthesia may be transient or chronic.
PAWOI Persistent Aura Without Infarction - See PMA
PFO Patent Foramen Ovale, a hole between two chambers of the heart that allows deoxygenated blood to flow back around the body. Linked to migraine and neurological syptoms when this blood flows into certian parts of the brain.
PMA Persistent Migraine Aura - According to the 2nd edition of the International Classification of Headache Disorders from 2004, persistent aura without infarction is defined by aura symptoms persisting for more than 1 week without radiographic evidence of infarction
Photophobia Pain caused by bright lights.
RBC/Retinal Blood Cells See Blue Field Entoptic Phenomenon
Schreer's Phenomenon See Blue Field Entoptic Phenomenon
Scotoma An area of particular visual impairment within vision, e.g. dark spots or flickering areas.
Sleep Paralysis (SP) Paralysis on waking, often leaving sufferer in a half-dream-like state. Many sufferers experience hallucinations while experiencing Sleep Paralysis.
Tinnitus Ringing or other artificial noises in the ear, often as a side-effect of hearing loss, some sufferers report that during transitory "bursts" of tinnitus, external "real" sounds can become quieter.
TMD See TMJ
TMJ Temporomandibular Joint (Disorder), inflammation of joint in the jaw resulting in pain and reduced jaw movement, can also cause neurological symptoms, such as Tinnitus.
Trailing A visual effect whereby moving objects appear to leave "trails" behind them, often dark and transparent in colour, but sometimes an object trail can be bright or look like positive or negative after images of the object, or look like lines of afterimages if the object had bright lights on it such as a moving car with its headlights on.
Troxler Effect Visual phenomenon wherby if you keep your vision focused on one thing for awhile without shifting focus, items in your perihperal vision can disapear. Often accentuted with VS sufferers.
Vertigo Feeling of persistent motion/Dizziness
VS Visual Snow/Static - General name for our condition and the primary symptom - the fine, swarming dark and light dots we see across our entire visual field.
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Acephalgic Migraine Migraine with aura and visual symptoms but without pain/headache. Can include nausea but doesn't have to.
After Images Persisting image of objects or light source after looking away from it. Positive after images retain the original colours of the object so as to create a duplicate in ones vision. Negative afterimages produce an effect more like a photonegative, without original colours, usually just a coloured shape with areas of light and dark, often black and white, or other opposite colours, are interchanged.
Anticonvuslant A class of medicines, normally used in the treatment of epilepsy. They work by suppressing the rapid/excessive firing of neurons that can lead to seiziure. Anticonvulsants have been prescribied for VS sufferers with varying degrees of success, suggesting VS may be linked to over active neurons.
Atrial Septal Defect See PFO
Autokinesis A Visual Disturbance creating the illusion of movement where there is none.
Blue Field Entoptic Phenomenon The bright white dots some sufferers see moving across their vision when looking at they sky, thought to be blood cells moving through the blood vessels in the eye.
Clonazepam See Klono/Klonopin
Depersonalisation (DP) A Neurological symptom where the sufferer feels detatched from themsleves, as if observing their own actions from a third person perspective. Sufferers often also have numbed emotions, in that they don't experience normal emotional response to things.
Derealisation (DR) A Neurological symptom where the suffer feels as if the world around them is somehow unreal, or not physical in the normal sense.
DES Dry Eye Syndrome. A condition whereby the eyes do not produce sufficient tears, sufferers usually have to use artificial tears to prevent their eyes from drying up.
Floaters Floaters are deposits in the fluid of the eye. They can cast a visible, often moving shadow onto the eyes surface. These shadows can take a variety of shapes, from stringy "worms" to dots.
Ghosting A visual disturbance whereby the suffer can see faint after-image like replica's of objects, superimposed over the object and off-set slightly in one direction - usually only apparent when an object is moving. Very similar to trailing and afterimages/palinopsia so this term is sometimes used to refer to those.
Heat Haze A Visual disturbance that creates a similar visual effect to that of a heat haze/wave infront of an object, like a sheet of ripples.
HPPD Hallucinogen Persistent Perception Disorder - persistent visual disturbance resulting from use of hallucinogenic drugs/substances, e.g. LSD.
Keppra An anti-convulsant that has, in some cases, been used with varying degrees of success to treat VS symptoms
Keratoconjunctivitis Sicca See DES
Klono/Klonopin An anti-convulsant that has had limited success in a small number of cases as a VS treatment. Favoured in HPPD induced cases of VS.
Levetiracetam See Keppra
Mal De Debarquement (Syndrome)/MdDS Neurological syndrome caused by persistent motion, e.g. cruises/flights, symptoms similar to Vertigo.
Mouches Volantes: See Floaters
Musical Ear Syndrome (MES) Hearing phantom sounds (auditory hallucinations) of a non-psychiatric nature, often musical, but also including voices and other associated sounds, commonly found in, but not limited to, elderly, hard of hearing people with tinnitus who lack adequate sound stimulation.
Occular Migraine See Acephalgic Migraine
Optical Migraine See Acephalgic Migraine
Palinopsia Strong/Persisting after images
Paresthesia A sensation of tingling, pricking, or numbness of a person's skin with no apparent long-term physical effect. It is more generally known as the feeling of "pins and needles" or of a limb being "asleep". Paresthesia may be transient or chronic.
PAWOI Persistent Aura Without Infarction - See PMA
PFO Patent Foramen Ovale, a hole between two chambers of the heart that allows deoxygenated blood to flow back around the body. Linked to migraine and neurological syptoms when this blood flows into certian parts of the brain.
PMA Persistent Migraine Aura - According to the 2nd edition of the International Classification of Headache Disorders from 2004, persistent aura without infarction is defined by aura symptoms persisting for more than 1 week without radiographic evidence of infarction
Photophobia Pain caused by bright lights.
RBC/Retinal Blood Cells See Blue Field Entoptic Phenomenon
Schreer's Phenomenon See Blue Field Entoptic Phenomenon
Scotoma An area of particular visual impairment within vision, e.g. dark spots or flickering areas.
Sleep Paralysis (SP) Paralysis on waking, often leaving sufferer in a half-dream-like state. Many sufferers experience hallucinations while experiencing Sleep Paralysis.
Tinnitus Ringing or other artificial noises in the ear, often as a side-effect of hearing loss, some sufferers report that during transitory "bursts" of tinnitus, external "real" sounds can become quieter.
TMD See TMJ
TMJ Temporomandibular Joint (Disorder), inflammation of joint in the jaw resulting in pain and reduced jaw movement, can also cause neurological symptoms, such as Tinnitus.
Trailing A visual effect whereby moving objects appear to leave "trails" behind them, often dark and transparent in colour, but sometimes an object trail can be bright or look like positive or negative after images of the object, or look like lines of afterimages if the object had bright lights on it such as a moving car with its headlights on.
Troxler Effect Visual phenomenon wherby if you keep your vision focused on one thing for awhile without shifting focus, items in your perihperal vision can disapear. Often accentuted with VS sufferers.
Vertigo Feeling of persistent motion/Dizziness
VS Visual Snow/Static - General name for our condition and the primary symptom - the fine, swarming dark and light dots we see across our entire visual field.
