# Visual Perception in Visual Snow Syndrome

> **NIH NIH F31** · UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA · 2022 · $33,251

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
Visual Snow Syndrome (VSS) is a serious but poorly understood visual disorder characterized by the persistent
perception of specks flickering across the entire visual field, akin to television snow. VSS has an estimated
prevalence of 1.4-3.3% and is often accompanied by additional symptoms such as prominent afterimages
(palinopsia), poor night vision, entoptic phenomena, and photophobia (light sensitivity). These symptoms make
tasks like reading and driving particularly difficult. While previous research has focused on identifying the
common symptoms and comorbidities, effective treatments have not been identified, the mechanisms underlying
the disorder are still unknown, and quantitative assessments of visual perception remain sparse. The proposed
research seeks to address these knowledge gaps by measuring differences in visual performance and
associated neural processing with a series of well-established psychophysical and imaging paradigms. To
provide quantitative measures of perception and visual processing in VSS, we will assess (1) contrast sensitivity,
(2) spatial context, and (3) temporal context perception in people with VSS compared to normally sighted controls
through a series of fundamental psychophysical and high field (7T) functional magnetic resonance imaging
(fMRI) experiments. These experiments will help us understand how people with VSS perceive and process
contrast, which is an important measure of visual function that is related to performance on every-day visual
tasks. Additionally, the proposed research will address how both spatial and temporal context are altered in
VSS—previous but sparse research suggests that both spatial and temporal context may be altered in VSS, but
further evidence with both larger numbers of participants and robust measures of neural activity are required to
investigate potential differences in visual context processing. Critically, we will also provide high resolution 7T
fMRI measures of cortical responses during visual tasks to investigate potential differences in gain control
throughout the visual system. The proposed assessment of visual perception and accompanying measurements
of neural processing in VSS are necessary to better characterize this disorder, and will help formulate hypotheses
about mechanisms underlying VSS.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10463429
- **Project number:** 1F31EY034016-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
- **Principal Investigator:** Samantha A Montoya
- **Activity code:** F31 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $33,251
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-08-29 → 2025-08-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10463429

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10463429, Visual Perception in Visual Snow Syndrome (1F31EY034016-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10463429. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*