He wakes up “in a world of demons” and only sees distorted faces: his strange illness questions scientists

La vision des visages par Victor. The Lancet

En 2020, un Américain de 59 ans qui n’avait pas de problème de santé, s’est un jour réveillé avec des symptômes très étonnants : il voyait les humains totalement déformés.

If some people think of it as science fiction, the experience of this American is very real. Victor woke up one day in November 2020 with very surprising vision problems: he saw all beings in a totally distorted way, but this 59-year-old man at the time of the events did not ;had no health problems. It is actually an extremely rare neurological perception disorder, according to The Lancet, a scientific journal.

A scary disease

"You can't imagine how scary it was", Victor recalled, as quoted by Sud Info. And for good reason, the moment he opens his eyes, he sees the faces of other human beings totally distorted. That is to say that the ears, nose and mouth are completely stretched, large wrinkles appear on the forehead, cheeks but also the chin, explains the Belgian media.

"My first thought was that I had woken up in a world of demons", testifies- he. Although this may seem surreal, there is a rational explanation. The man, who is now in his sixties, suffered from PMO, in other words, prosopometamorphopsia. It’is an extremely rare neurological perceptual disorder that causes "distortion of the profile, size, texture or color of people's faces that a patient encounters", explains the scientific journal.

If such symptoms disappear within a few days or weeks, other people may experience such effects lasting for several years, as in Victor's case. The American continues to see distorted faces when he walks in the street.

This disease still remains somewhat of an enigma for researchers, who do not yet know 100% of the causes of this pathology. Certain avenues nevertheless remain very interesting, such as a possible dysfunction of the brain network, a stroke, epilepsy or even a migraine.