Not to take away from some of these comments, but the article does not mention anything about casual observation of the eyes signalling mental health issues. The article is highlighting research on diagnosing disorders of the brain using ophthalmological methods (e.g. optical coherence tomography to measure retinal thickness, electroretinography to measure electrical signaling in rods and cones, and angiography to assess retinal vasculature). Apparently, these non-invasive methods may be used as an additional diagnostic tool in diagnosis of a variety of disorders, and may even be early indicators of brain disorders that have not yet manifested themselves in psychological disturbances.
>and may even be early indicators of brain disorders that have not yet manifested themselves in psychological disturbances
It's only a matter of time before someone as unscrupulous as ClearviewAI develops a phrenology tool for identifying psychological disturbances based on "crazy eyes", which will be used extensively by state security services to manufacture suspicion where none is warranted. False positives are a feature not a bug. See, e.g. drug sniffing dogs and [1].
This article will be cited in the marketing material. It will not matter one iota that the research does not actually support that kind of application.
This is just personal, but once I had to help my aunt during an extreme bipolar episode. She was violent, paranoid, and hallucinating. One of the most haunting things from that time was her eyes. They seemed hard and staring. When she looked at you, it didn’t feel like it was her in there. Her eyes weren’t shiny and expressive like normal. There was just something frantic and non human in them. Maybe it was just the extreme stress from feeling like people were coming for her, but it’s interesting to hear another avenue for getting insight into mental health disorders.
There is a deep part of our brain that controls eye contact. Babies know to stare at faces, even when they cannot recognize one from another. It is a common evolved trait. Dogs, lions, deer, seals, chipmunks, crows, some would say even sharks ... all sorts of animals will "look us in the eye". We expect to see a certain code of behaviour re eye contact. When a person or animal is subject to something that alters that covention we interpret that as "crazy eyes". A dog in pain will look a human in the eye. A dog on hallucinationogenic drugs will not. We must be careful whenever we are interpreting such things as our interpretation can be based more on expectations than reality. The shark is probably not meeting our gaze. Rather, we see an eyeball and expect that it is acting a certain way.
Spend time talking to someone with a false eye. You might not understand why their face seems a little odd. You probably cannot tell which eye is fake (false eyes are far more common than people realize) but you know something is not right.
The privacy impact of this is immense, as if you can imagine doing ML training on millions of mugshots to create a model for scanning people's eyes, we've now got super-fancy phrenology. Who needs morality when you have biostatistical markers.
It's conceivable we could probably do the same with gait and voice analysis for other issues as well.
When I saw the title I thought of people I know who have “crazy eyes” (as I’ve heard it called). I can’t even define what it is, but know it when I see it, and often that person seems off somehow. I’ve been trying to decide for a while if it’s real or some sort of confirmation bias after I know them better.
There's a scene in Queen's Gambit where one character tells another something along the lines of "I had an alcoholic father. I see your eyes and I know what it is".
Having an alcoholic father myself, I know exactly what that line means. It really is a very specific look, though as you say it's hard to explain to someone.
I had the exact same thought. I think these "crazy eyes" come from a predisposition to view other people (e.g. other skin colors, genders, or just other humans) as a threat. It's always that fixed stare, unblinking face, and enlarged pupils. It almost is like right before one's cat decides to launch a sneak attack on your leg as your round the corner, but usually more dangerous (either physically or emotionally).
Note that the article included concussions and multiple sclerosis.
If anyone had a concussion and has symptoms months later, you can do visual rehab exercises to help address long run symptoms. This + neck rehab resolved my post concussion symptoms very rapidly. They had persisted for months until that.
Now I’m wondering if continuing to do those exercises can affect the odds of brain lesions. I know my visual tracking is still not 100%. Do things go in both directions: lesions —> vision issues, improving visual tracking —> cause brain to improve lesions through focus to that region. Or would it only be one way? Very interesting to see the retina/optic nerve are from the same tissue as the brain.
A lot of crazy people that 've met have wide open Eye like if they are always surprised. But i think it's more the medication than a condition. Or it could be a biais.
I remember watching some youtube neurologist said "Eyes are only part of the brain visible outside" and then again old saying "The eyes are the mirror of the soul"
It should make for an interesting study to map eye characteristics with specific personality types. (For example, I suspect that anxious personality types make less eye contact, and or often short-sighted).
I'm not implying by any means that gender or sexual expression is a mental-health condition - but i've always thought my 'gaydar' pings with certain eyes, specifically male eyes with longer more 'feminine' lashes. probably confirmation bias but I've wondered if others have noticed this
Some women once told me they think eyes with more pronounced lashes make men crazy attractive. So I suppose there's nothing really "gay" about it. Some male actors wear mascara (e.g. Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean), making them more attractive to women, I suppose. I'd love to see some science behind this though.
This is anecdotal, but I've noticed that prepubescent kids under a lot of stress and anxiety often wear glasses at a young age - either they have very strict parents with lots of rules (and sometimes anger issues) or parents who are having marital issues that make the child feel very insecure.
It's a bit of an oversimplification, but it's not too far off the mark. Human vision is pretty poor in terms of resolution and distance. But if you stop and think about it, it's incredible that we see as well as we do, or even at all! Proper vision requires a huge amount of brain real estate. The coordination of muscles involved in movements is incredibly complex. The eyeball is so special that it's got immune privileges no other body part has. The retina can detect a single photon hitting it.
khr|5 years ago
rmrfstar|5 years ago
It's only a matter of time before someone as unscrupulous as ClearviewAI develops a phrenology tool for identifying psychological disturbances based on "crazy eyes", which will be used extensively by state security services to manufacture suspicion where none is warranted. False positives are a feature not a bug. See, e.g. drug sniffing dogs and [1].
This article will be cited in the marketing material. It will not matter one iota that the research does not actually support that kind of application.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADE_651
svrma|5 years ago
violetgarden|5 years ago
sandworm101|5 years ago
Spend time talking to someone with a false eye. You might not understand why their face seems a little odd. You probably cannot tell which eye is fake (false eyes are far more common than people realize) but you know something is not right.
ddorian43|5 years ago
treeman79|5 years ago
Was in a trapped situation. Not allowed to leave; flashback to childhood assault.
Started seeing seeing things in effort to get away. Was not really seeing anyone trying to talk to me.
0/10 would not recommend. Also if a person wants to leave a situation, for the love anything, let them.
motohagiography|5 years ago
It's conceivable we could probably do the same with gait and voice analysis for other issues as well.
meowface|5 years ago
m463|5 years ago
DougN7|5 years ago
kace91|5 years ago
Having an alcoholic father myself, I know exactly what that line means. It really is a very specific look, though as you say it's hard to explain to someone.
_huayra_|5 years ago
graeme|5 years ago
If anyone had a concussion and has symptoms months later, you can do visual rehab exercises to help address long run symptoms. This + neck rehab resolved my post concussion symptoms very rapidly. They had persisted for months until that.
Now I’m wondering if continuing to do those exercises can affect the odds of brain lesions. I know my visual tracking is still not 100%. Do things go in both directions: lesions —> vision issues, improving visual tracking —> cause brain to improve lesions through focus to that region. Or would it only be one way? Very interesting to see the retina/optic nerve are from the same tissue as the brain.
bussiere|5 years ago
Tarq0n|5 years ago
throwaway98797|5 years ago
What drives folks to force eyes open is fear that aren’t seeing all that they should.
NiceWayToDoIT|5 years ago
vmchale|5 years ago
Wonder if it reflects something in the eyes.
webmobdev|5 years ago
dillondoyle|5 years ago
amelius|5 years ago
webmobdev|5 years ago
war1025|5 years ago
It used to be common knowledge that sitting too close to a screen messed up your vision, and somehow we threw that advice out the window.
boiledrope|5 years ago
elric|5 years ago
redis_mlc|5 years ago
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