Study title: Investigating visual hallucinations in Lewy Body Dementia

Contact Dr. David Schwartzman, Research Fellow at the Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science, University of Sussex.

Participants are invited to take part in a study that aims to capture the precise visual properties of hallucinations that may occur as the result of Lewy Body Dementia.

The study will involve a 45 minute skype or phone interview, in which you will be asked questions about your specific experience of visual hallucinations, including the content of your hallucinations and how similar they are to normal visual experiences.

To take part in this study you must currently experience visual hallucinations as the result of Lewy Body Dementia.

Background:
The team’s research leverages recent advances in visualising layers of computer models (deep convolutional neural networks (DCNN)) to simulate the visual hallucinations that may occur in Lewy Body Dementia. We are using a cutting-edge model that is capable of producing images that accurately simulate the content of normal visual perception. By modifying how information flows through our model we are able to produce images that display visual similarities to the hallucinations reported in Lewy Body Dementia. Our hope is that by creating a detailed computer simulation of visual hallucinations we may gain insights into why they occur in conditions such as Lewy Body Dementia.

In order to validate the success of our model, we want to directly compare the outputs of our model to actual descriptions of visual hallucinations given by people with Lewy Body Dementia. In this way we can assess how closely our model mimics the visual qualities of visual hallucinations in Lewy Body Dementia.

If you would be interested in taking part or have any questions, contact David Schwartzman by email on d.schwartzman@sussex.ac.uk.