The Myopia Discrepancy Phenomenon

Summary The origin of subjective visual perceptions is still not fully understood. Existing instruments do not work at sufficient resolution to observe microscopic processes in the brain in situ. We present a preliminary empirical phenomenological study. A light spot at the resolution limit of the healthy eye is observed by visual introspection under ametropic, especially myopic conditions. We would like to discuss this as yet undescribed phenomenon of visual perception, particularly from the point of view of Gestalt theory. The phenomenon consists in the discrepancy that instead of a correspondingly blurred version of the spot, a surprisingly sharp and complex structure is perceived that completely contradicts our expectation. Since the shape perceived under these conditions does not contain any geometric information from objects in the physical external world, we postulate that the shape contains morphological information about its formation process. We present our phenomenon, including geometric and radiometric considerations, the first-person perceptions in our preliminary study, as well as our reasoning.