"Icons jump out of the monitor" and other strange signs of Alice in Wonderland syndrome

More than two years ago, a 54-year-old man, whose name was kept secret by doctors, turned to the hospital with a complaint about "icons jumping out of the monitor." The strange phenomenon was accompanied by headache, hypersensitivity to light and severe nausea.

After a detailed examination of the patient, it turned out that he had Alice in Wonderland syndrome. What it is and who is at risk, read our material.

Alice in Wonderland syndrome is a neurological disease, the name of which is borrowed from the work of the same name by Lewis Carroll. This condition is characterized by a violation of a person's visual perception of the surrounding world or himself. Often patients with the "fabulous" syndrome see individual parts of the body too large or, conversely, too small.

Let's remember how a caterpillar smoking a hookah told Alice: "One side will make you taller and the other will make you shorter." Approximately the same thing happens with patients suffering from this neurological disorder. By the way, the disease is most often observed in children aged 5 to 13 years, but in this article we will talk about a 54-year-old man who also became a victim of distorted reality.

One day, sitting at the computer, a man saw icons from the desktop pop out, hovering between him and the monitor. It lasted about 10 minutes, then all the images disappeared. At the same time, the man felt a sharp throbbing pain in his head, increased sensitivity to light and nausea. After this incident, he decided to go to the hospital as soon as possible.

During the first examination of the patient, the doctors managed to find out that he had been suffering from migraines for a long time. In addition, the man said that many members of his family had brain tumors. However, computed tomography (CT) and electroencephalography (EEG) did not show any violations. Therefore, the man was transferred to the neurological department, where he underwent another test — magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Thanks to the scan, it was possible to identify the cause of health problems in a 54-year-old patient. It turned out to be a glioblastoma 2.5 cm long, located in the temporal-occipital region of the brain. It is this part of the brain that is associated with spatial perception and orientation of a person, so its defeat can cause strange visions, as happened in the case of a man.

Glioblastoma is one of the most common and most aggressive forms of brain tumors. For unknown reasons, it is more common in men. Glioblastomas tend to increase rapidly in size, therefore, according to doctors, there is a high probability that the patient's tumor was formed only a few months ago.

After the diagnosis, the man underwent surgery to remove the tumor and continued treatment with radiation and chemotherapy. About a year later, the patient went back to the hospital, as he had a relapse.

The man underwent another operation and now, 20 months after the first episode of Alice in Wonderland syndrome, he announced an improvement in his well-being. According to him, jumping icons, as well as headaches, no longer bother him.

Doctors note that this is the first known case of the syndrome caused by glioblastoma. Usually the signs of "Alice in Wonderland" occur due to epilepsy, infections, mental illness, migraines or drug intoxication.