[Psychological aspects of perception of magnetophosphenes and electrophosphenes]

Scientific research at the Helmholtz Institute for Biomedical Engineering at Aachen University indicates that ELF (extremely-low frequency) electric and magnetic fields may generate visual perceptions in the human retina which are similar to the pressure phosphenes. During our own experiments we found that 90% of subjects undergoing a blind experiment reported various visual sensations which were mostly colored and moving. Our findings indicate that the psychological component of the perception of electric and magnetic phosphenes must not be underestimated. It is possible that there is a connection between retinal noise in the dark (due to metabolic processes [5, 8]) and magnetic or electric phosphenes.