Hewitt Trevor, Amaya Ioanna, Beauté Romy, Seth Anil K, Schmidt Timo T, Schwartzman David J
Sussex Centre for Consciousness Science, Department of Engineering and Informatics, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9QT, England.
Neurocomputation and Neuroimaging Unit, Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, Habelschwerdter Allee 45, Berlin, 14195, Germany.
Neurosci Conscious. 2025 Aug 7;2025(1):niaf020. doi: 10.1093/nc/niaf020. eCollection 2025.
Exposure to rapid and bright stroboscopic light has long been reported to induce vivid visual hallucinations of colour and geometric formations. This phenomenon was first documented by Purkinje over 200 years ago. Since then, significant progress has been made in understanding the effects of stroboscopic light and the experiences it induces through multiple waves of interest from the scientific, therapeutic, and broader cultural communities. Despite these advances, fundamental questions remain unanswered, including comprehensive characterizations of its phenomenology, its precise physiological origins, under which conditions it may lead to altered states of consciousness phenomena, and potential clinical or therapeutic applications. This narrative review provides a historical summary of research into stroboscopic light stimulation (SLS) alongside its use in recreation and lay-therapeutic contexts. It also discusses the phenomenology of these experiences, current perspectives on the potential neural mechanisms of stroboscopically induced experiences, and provides an outlook for future research in this field.
长期以来，有报道称暴露于快速且明亮的频闪灯光下会引发色彩和几何图形的生动视觉幻觉。这一现象早在200多年前就由浦肯野首次记录下来。从那时起，通过科学界、治疗界及更广泛文化界的多轮关注，在理解频闪灯光的影响及其引发的体验方面取得了重大进展。尽管有这些进展，但一些基本问题仍未得到解答，包括对其现象学的全面描述、其确切的生理起源、在哪些条件下它可能导致意识状态改变现象，以及潜在的临床或治疗应用。这篇叙述性综述提供了频闪灯光刺激（SLS）研究的历史总结，以及其在娱乐和非专业治疗背景下的应用。它还讨论了这些体验的现象学、当前对频闪诱导体验潜在神经机制的观点，并对该领域未来的研究进行了展望。
