Charles Bonnet Syndrome — Same Phenomenon as Tinnitus?

[Jesse Pinkman]

I came across this video and this is the first time I've heard about this condition. It only occurs during vision loss, and the first thing that hit me was its similarity to tinnitus. Basically the brain starts to create phantom visions and as we all know tinnitus is phantom sounds from the brain often after hearing loss. It seems like this is a general phenomenon where the brain seems to create sense inputs when it's losing them.

Have someone studied similarities between Charles Bonnet syndrome and tinnitus? Because to me it looks like the same mechanism just with different senses.

 

[Harley]

I always wondered what is the biological need for these horrid disorders.

From survivol standpoint,tTinnitus or the Charles Bonnet syndrome accomplish absolutely nothing, except to terrorize those affected.

Brain should not have this kind of mechanism within itself, as it is absolutely pointless.

 

[Sevv]

Seems similar to visual snow, but visual snow should be linked more to idiopathic tinnitus, while Charles Bonnet syndrome should be linked to noise induced tinnitus. The hyperexcitability in Charles Bonnet syndrome is also in a different place as it is in VS.

 

[John Mahan]

I always wondered what is the biological need for these horrid disorders.

From survivol standpoint,tTinnitus or the Charles Bonnet syndrome accomplish absolutely nothing, except to terrorize those affected.

Brain should not have this kind of mechanism within itself, as it is absolutely pointless.

You are making the point of evolutionary benefit and sadly there are countless human health disorders that don't accord with this reality Harley. Perhaps you are engaging in wishful thinking.

Pick a neurological disease....or heart disease, or acute arthritis....there are countless breakdowns of the body and mind.

Real culprit? Aging. Human's are living almost twice as long as we did just 100 years ago. How is this relevant?
Primitive man has inhabited the planet for 6 million years. Modern man, an arguable mutation: 200,000 years.
Life span has gone from 50 years old to 80 years old in a blink of the eye on the evolutionary scale. We are basically outliving our evolutionary design, mostly due to technology and medical advancement.

This comes btw with some level of human suffering.

 

[Harley]

You are making the point of evolutionary benefit and sadly there are countless human health disorders that don't accord with this reality Harley. Perhaps you are engaging in wishful thinking.

Pick a neurological disease....or heart disease, or acute arthritis....there are countless breakdowns of the body and mind.

Real culprit? Aging. Human's are living almost twice as long as we did just 100 years ago. How is this relevant?
Primitive man has inhabited the planet for 6 million years. Modern man, an arguable mutation: 200,000 years.
Life span has gone from 50 years old to 80 years old in a blink of the eye on the evolutionary scale. We are basically outliving our evolutionary design, mostly due to technology and medical advancement.

This comes btw with some level of human suffering.

You are of course correct, but Tinnitus just seems so ridiculously, over the board unnecessary.

I do understand our bodies breaking down with age, but some of Tinnitus sufferers are just normal, healthy kids with their whole lives ahead of them.

It hurts to see destroyed young lives, just because their brain has made a horrible choice to continuously torture them for no good reason whatsoever.

Yes it is definitelly wishful thinking on my part, but I'm the type of person who's always trying to make sense of things by applying logic and common sense.
I always thought that nature was so much smarter than this and I always believed in our bodies ability to heal itself, or at least trying to heal itself.

This is why Tinnitus is so incomprehensible to me, because it is within our brains power to stop Tinnitus in seconds, but for some reason it choses not to.
That is the part that troubles me the most.

 

[John Mahan]

You are of course correct, but Tinnitus just seems so ridiculously, over the board unnecessary.

I do understand our bodies breaking down with age, but some of Tinnitus sufferers are just normal, healthy kids with their whole lives ahead of them.

It hurts to see destroyed young lives, just because their brain has made a horrible choice to continuously torture them for no good reason whatsoever.

Yes it is definitelly wishful thinking on my part, but I'm the type of person who's always trying to make sense of things by applying logic and common sense.
I always thought that nature was so much smarter than this and I always believed in our bodies ability to heal itself, or at least trying to heal itself.

This is why Tinnitus is so incomprehensible to me, because it is within our brains power to stop Tinnitus in seconds, but for some reason it choses not to.
That is the part that troubles me the most.

Perhaps ridiculous to the uninitiated, but not to those that have at least some understanding of the complexity of the disorder. To me, it makes perfect sense. Yes, I believe in this day we should have some viable therapies.

But let's say tinnitus is as complex as any neurological disease....like MS, or ALS or Parkinson's. Scientists are only scraping the surface on resolving these diseases as well. There are even rare neurological disorders that likely haven't been discovered yet they are so rare. Interaction of genes with the environment is beyond complex and diminishing this or simplifying the technical challenges to me seems a bit naïve knowing what we know now. I is complex.

Help is coming. My grandmother died with rather profound tinnitus at the age of almost 90. Countless people have lived long lives with loud tinnitus. I know she struggled with it and on some level it degraded her quality of life. But I have known people that lost the ability to walk for reasons doctors can't understand. Many things can attack the immune system or degrade quality of life. Like people living with chronic pain which is not dissimilar to tinnitus.