I sometimes have a difficult time trying to tell if I actually have tinnitus, or if I can simply detect something that's there for everyone. Plenty of websites say that you will always be able to hear the blood flowing through your ears, and that doesn't count as tinnitus. It's just that most people subconsciously filter that out, to the point where it can't be detected even if they look for it, except while in a completely silent, noise-deadening room, such as an anechoic chamber.
It's similar to how I don't have any issues with color in my vision, yet when I look at a completely solid and flat color, I can see noise in it. It's not visual snow, because it obstructs nothing and I can easily tell the difference between even very similar colors, but I don't seem to experience the "noise reduction effect" where if I stare at a solid color, it is completely and entirely solid and unchanging and has no noise at all.
I believe I'm simply observing entropy, and that noise is supposed to be there, because it's impossible for light to always explore all possible paths instantaneously and exhaustively. But I'm not supposed to be able to notice or perceive it, I don't think.
I think it has to do with me being autistic, but it's hard to find any descriptions of similar experiences online, and it's also hard to communicate about it with others.
Exception: my right eye has significantly more noise, to the point where it's difficult to actually see and read through that eye, even though I can still see all colors and text perfectly sharply. If I close my left eye, I will see the darkness through my right, to the point where it's distracting. I think this was an error caused by me being cross-eyed at birth; my right eye just sorta deteriorated, and now it only exists for depth perception.
I see the same noise, but I think it's along our nerves rather than the light it's self. High rest camera don't pick it up for example.
There's a lot of filtering happening in the visual cortex all the time. Your nose for example is visible but gets ignored. (I hate it when I remember this and suddenly notice it lol)
There's also the blind spot in each eye which gets covered by what the other eye can see. If I close one eye now, I can alway see exactly where that blind spot is now.
After I had an eye test where they flashed a light in my eyes, I perceived the blood vessels. Now I can sometimes perceive them if I look at a white TV screen and pay attention.
> Your nose for example is visible but gets ignored
To me, it's anything that's covered in one eye, but visible by the other, that can
get "ignored". It's just binocular vision at work. Similar to the blind spot thing you mentioned.
I've seen my blood vessels too, but they didn't just flash a light in my eyes, they had me look into a machine that did a full retinal scan. Now that was fun, because it was 15 minutes of "wtf your eyelashes are too long they keep getting in the way. keep trying"
Agreed, these are just binocular vision. But here's an interesting one.
A relative had a pituitary tumor crushing her optic nerve, and went to a specialist who ran some tests as she was seeing Van Gogh style patterns everywhere. It turns out she had no color vision in the periphery, but she didn't know this. It was only when she couldn't correctly identify the color of some lights until they were right in front of her, and she got freaked out by it.
That's really cool. It's similar to how I can only read what's in the exact center of my vision, but I don't really notice because I'm always looking at what I'm trying to read. When my eyes move, my brain still maintains the illusion that what I'm reading has not actually moved, I look where I am focusing, so the data is there when I need it.
This is all really cool, honestly.
I can read fine from my left eye, but if I try to read with my right eye, then both eyes will be superimposed, and sometimes I'll get confused when my brain is trying to parse two sentences at once and it forgets which eye it's reading with.
My right eye is defective, lol. Even though it can see perfectly clearly and sharply, my brain just doesn't treat it properly. Everything that relies on having two eyes works fine, like depth perception, but anything that relies on only one eye, can only really be done with my left.
It's similar to how I don't have any issues with color in my vision, yet when I look at a completely solid and flat color, I can see noise in it. It's not visual snow, because it obstructs nothing and I can easily tell the difference between even very similar colors, but I don't seem to experience the "noise reduction effect" where if I stare at a solid color, it is completely and entirely solid and unchanging and has no noise at all.
I believe I'm simply observing entropy, and that noise is supposed to be there, because it's impossible for light to always explore all possible paths instantaneously and exhaustively. But I'm not supposed to be able to notice or perceive it, I don't think.
I think it has to do with me being autistic, but it's hard to find any descriptions of similar experiences online, and it's also hard to communicate about it with others.
Exception: my right eye has significantly more noise, to the point where it's difficult to actually see and read through that eye, even though I can still see all colors and text perfectly sharply. If I close my left eye, I will see the darkness through my right, to the point where it's distracting. I think this was an error caused by me being cross-eyed at birth; my right eye just sorta deteriorated, and now it only exists for depth perception.