The Aura

An aura is a neurological visual disorder that comes as "scintillating scotoma" (artistically represented in the second image of the slideshow above), it can be defined as an electrical brain storm [1] produced by bioelectric signals from nerve cells, better known as neurons. Visually, the phenomenon really remembers that of an electric discharge. The visual aura disorder is complex and can occur in healthy individuals or in conjunction with specific diseases, everyone experiences it differently, however it must be divided into two distinct types: the one with the absence other symptoms and the one manifested in conjunction with headache or preceding the migraine.

Cause

The causes of this phenomenon are currently unknown, a person "sensitive" to this disorder experiences on average 3 or 4 events a year and surely stress and fatigue can increase the frequency, however millions of people are tired or stressed, why only somebody can see the aura?
We think the human body is not only a bio-electrochemical machine, but is an organism connected to the whole universe, in this holistic view many scientists in recent years are studying the connection between the human body and its environment, indeed the cause of some disorders in our body is due to external triggers, not only from terrestrial sources but also from deep space. Visual Aura is part of a larger group of vision disorders called phosphenes [2], patients irradiated with ionizing radiation therapies often experience phosphenes of various types and astronauts in space are affected by phosphenes caused by cosmic rays.

Cosmic rays

Cosmic rays are nuclei of atoms that come from space travelling and carrying high energy levels. When they collide with the Earth's atmosphere they disintegrate the air molecules producing cascades of subatomic particles that reach the ground. This is a constant and continuous shower of ionizing particles, they modify the nature of the earth's atmosphere and pass through everything they find along their path. In computers, problems produced by cosmic rays are well known and are classified as SEU (Single Event Upset); we can consider our brain - with its bio-electronic neural circuits - as something very similar to an electronic computer, so our neural network could be vulnerable to cosmic particles just like the electronic computer network.

Every second our body is crossed by more than a hundred of certain subatomic particles called muons, which are produced by cosmic rays in the atmosphere.

On this basis, current investigations have, for example, noticed problems with implanted cardiac defibrillators, especially in air flights, where the intensity of cosmic rays is extreme. [3]
Other studies suggest a relationship between different diseases [4] [5] [6] and the intensity of cosmic rays, or the activity of the Sun or the geomagnetic field, which however are three interconnected elements.

Understanding whether the aura may depend on subatomic particles that affect our neurons is not easy, since the frequency of events per individual is low. The only way is to collect a lot of data, thus the largest number of testimony from people around the world who have the "luck" of witnessing these kind of cerebral auroras.

We are looking for healthy people who experience visual aura, the app that we propose is therefore a kind of logbook on which to note the place and the exact moment in which the aura appears. These data will allow us to compare the various "cosmic" parameters with those of the recorded "aura events" and then draw a conclusion.

App Download

To now Android only Sorry!