For most of us, these illusions are harmless. But my new research, published in Perception, suggests people with visual snow syndrome – a rare neurological condition that causes constant “visual static” – experience this phenomenon more strongly and more often.

This finding offers a unique window into how an overactive brain may amplify the erroneous illusory patterns it sees in the world. It also shows how perception isn’t a perfect mirror of reality.

What is visual snow syndrome?

Visual snow syndrome is characterised by the persistent perception of flickering dots, like television static, across the entire field of vision. People with the condition often report the dots never go away, even in the dark.

The cause of this syndrome remains unclear, but recent evidence points to hyperexcitability in the visual cortex, the region of the brain that interprets what we see. In essence, the neurons responsible for processing visual information may be firing too readily, flooding perception with noise.

Many individuals with visual snow syndrome also experience migraines, light sensitivity, afterimages or visual trails that linger after motion. These symptoms can make everyday visual experiences confusing and exhausting. Yet, despite growing awareness, the condition remains under-diagnosed and poorly understood.

Testing how ‘visual snow’ shapes perception

To test whether this hyperactive visual system changes how people interpret ambiguous visual input, our research team invited more than 250 volunteers to complete an online experiment.

Participants first completed a short questionnaire to determine whether they experienced symptoms of visual snow. They were then shown 320 images of everyday objects, from tree trunks to cups of coffee, and asked to rate, on a scale from 0 to 100, how easily they could see a face in each image.

In total, 132 people met the criteria for visual snow syndrome, while 104 formed a control group matched for age. We also tracked whether participants experienced migraines, allowing us to compare four subgroups.

The brain that sees too much

The results were striking. People with visual snow consistently gave higher “face scores” to each and every image than those without the condition. This suggests they were more likely to see faces in random textures and objects.

Those with both visual snow and migraines scored highest of all.

This pattern was remarkably consistent. In general, the groups agreed on which images looked most like faces, but the visual snow group reported seeing illusory faces more vividly.

In other words, the same objects triggered a stronger illusion.

The results align with earlier theories that the visual snow brain is hyper-responsive. Normally, our visual system generates quick, low-level “guesses” about what we’re seeing, followed by slower checks to confirm those guesses.

When that feedback loop is disrupted by excessive neural activity, an early “false alarm”, such as mistaking an object for a face, may be amplified rather than corrected.

Why migraine makes it stronger

Migraine and visual snow have been frequently linked, and both involve abnormally high levels of cortical activity. During a migraine, visual neurons can become hypersensitive to flicker, light and contrast.

Our data suggest that when migraine and visual snow occur together, the brain’s sensitivity to illusory faces increases even further. This may reflect a shared neural pathway underlying both conditions.

Future research could use this relationship to develop new diagnostic tools. Face pareidolia tests are quick, accessible, and could be adapted for children or nonverbal patients who can’t easily describe what they see.

A new way to understand perception

Face pareidolia isn’t a disorder — it’s a side effect of a perceptual system that prioritises social information. Evolution has biased our visual system to spot faces first and ask questions later.

For people with visual snow, that system may be dialled up too high. Their brains may “connect the dots” in visual noise, interpreting ambiguous input as meaningful patterns.

This finding supports the idea that visual snow is not just a vision problem but a broader disturbance in how the brain interprets visual input.

By understanding why some people see too much, we can learn more about how all of us see at all.

Why it matters

Visual snow syndrome is often dismissed or misdiagnosed, leaving patients frustrated. Linking the condition to a measurable illusion such as face pareidolia gives clinicians a tangible sign of the altered brain activity behind the symptoms.

It also humanises the experience. People with visual snow aren’t imagining their perceptions – their brains are genuinely processing the world differently.

Beyond diagnosis, this research contributes to a bigger question in neuroscience: how does the brain strike a balance between sensitivity and accuracy? Too little activity, and we miss the signal. Too much, and we start to see faces in the snow.

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However, recent studies investigating a combination of manual therapy, neck exercises and education tailored to the individual’s circumstances show some small effects in improving the number of migraine attacks and the disabling effects of headache.

Manual therapy and neck exercises can also give short-term pain relief.

Cervicogenic headache: when pain travels up your neck

Physiotherapy can help with migraine but you first need a comprehensive and skilled physical assessment of the neck by an experienced physiotherapist. It’s crucial to identify if a musculoskeletal neck disorder is present and, if so, which type of neck treatment is needed.

Sometimes, however, medical management is also necessary and it’s worth seeing a doctor. Here’s what you need to know.

Again, a detailed assessment by a trained physiotherapist is needed to identify if the neck is involved and what type of neck treatment is best.

This can cause episodic attacks of moderate to severe headache, as well as:

It is also important people with migraine understand how their migraine is triggered, what lifestyle factors contribute to it and when to take the appropriate medications to help manage their migraines.

Can physio help with migraine?

There are currently no peer-reviewed studies looking at how effective this technique is for migraine.

If you are wondering if you have cervicogenic headache or if you have bothersome neck pain associated with headache, ask your doctor to refer you to a skilled physiotherapist trained in headache treatment. A careful assessment can determine if physiotherapy treatment will help.

• sensitivity to light and noise
• nausea and
• intolerance to physical exertion.

Like migraine, tension type headache is often associated with neck pain and also has different aggravating factors, not all of which are due to the neck.

There is some evidence a combination of manual therapy and exercise can reduce tension type headache.

On the other hand, if the person has musculoskeletal neck disorder, physiotherapy neck treatments may help improve their migraine. Musculoskeletal neck disorder is what physiotherapists call typical neck pain caused by, for instance, a sports injury or sleeping in a weird way.

Cervicogenic headache is where pain is referred from the top of the neck (an area known as the upper cervical spine).

Tension type headache is the most common type of headache, characterised by a feeling of “tightness” or “band-like” pain around the head.

Neck pain and headache are often triggered by activities that put strain on the neck, such as holding one posture or position for a long time, or doing repetitive neck movements (such as looking up and down repeatedly).

Physiotherapists can also provide education and advice on aggravating factors and self management.

A trained physiotherapist can provide some of this information and help patients make sense of their condition and recommend the patient see their GP for medication, when appropriate.

In those cases, neck pain is part of migraine and can be a warning (but not a cause or trigger) of an imminent migraine attack. It can signal patients need to take steps to prevent the attack.

In fact, there’s a solid body of research showing that physiotherapy treatments can be really helpful for certain types of headache.

Unlike in migraine, people experiencing cervicogenic headache don’t usually get nausea or sensitivity to light and sound.

While this may be true in some people, our research has shown many people with migraine have nothing wrong with their neck despite having neck pain.

There are many triggers. Everyone’s are different and identifying yours is crucial to self-management of migraine. Medication can also help, so seeing a GP is the first step if you suspect you have migraine.

What about tension headaches?

Nausea and sensitivity to light and noise are not usually present with this type of headache.

Migraine is a neurological disorder whereby the brain has difficulty processing sensory input.

There are many types and causes of headache. If you suffer frequent headaches or have a new or unusual headache, ask a doctor to investigate.

You might’ve noticed some physiotherapists advertise they offer treatments for headaches and wondered: would that work?

However, in some cases the neck can become very sensitive and easily aggravated in migraine. That means inappropriate assessment or treatment could end up triggering a migraine.

Because this is a musculoskeletal condition of the upper neck, physiotherapy treatments that improve neck function – such as manual therapy, exercise and education – can provide short- and long-term benefits.

Seeking help

There is good evidence physiotherapy treatment will improve cervicogenic headache and emerging evidence it might help migraine and tension type headache (alongside usual medical care).

About 70-80% of people with migraine also have neck pain, commonly just before or at the onset of a migraine attack. This can make people think their neck pain is triggering the migraine.

Pain is usually one-sided. It generally starts just beneath the skull at the top of the neck, spreading into the back of the head and sometimes into the back of the eye.

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He also tried levcromakalim, another blood vessel opener that lowers blood pressure. It’s a potassium-channel opener, and this, too, caused migraine attacks for all 16 people in the study.

To Ashina, these experiments suggest that medicines that turn off migraine-inducing pathways at or before the point of potassium release could be of benefit. There might be side effects, such as changes in blood pressure, but Ashina notes there are potassium-channel subtypes that may be limited to blood vessels in the brain. Targeting those specific channels would be safer.

“I personally really like the potassium-channel track,” says Russo. “I think if we can find drugs targeting the ion channels, the potassium channels, that will be fruitful.”

Hopeful for opioids

Russo is also upbeat about work on a new kind of opioid. Traditional opioids, whether from poppies or pharmacies, work on a receptor called mu. Along with their remarkable pain-dulling abilities, they often create side effects including constipation and itching, plus euphoria and risk for addiction.

But there’s another class of opioid receptors, called delta receptors, that don’t cause euphoria, says Pradhan, who’s investigating them. When delta-targeting opioid molecules are offered to animals, the animals won’t self-administer the drugs as they do with mu-acting opioids such as morphine, suggesting that the drugs are less pleasurable and less likely to be habit-forming.

Delta receptors appear in parts of the nervous system linked to migraine, including the trigeminal ganglia. Pradhan has found that in mice, compounds acting on the delta opioid receptor seem to relieve hypersensitivity to touch, a marker for migraine-like symptoms, as well as brain activity associated with migraine aura.

Encouraged by early evidence that these receptors can be safely targeted in people, two companies—PharmNovo in Sweden and Pennsylvania-based Trevena—are pursuing alternative opioid treatments. Migraine is one potential use for such drugs.

Thus, the evolving story of migraine is one of many types of triggers, many types of attacks, many targets, and, with time, more potential treatments.

“I don’t think there’s one molecule that fits all,” says Levy. “Hopefully, in 10, 15 years, we’ll know, for a given person, what triggers it and what can target that.”

This story originally appeared in Knowable Magazine.

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