Eyes hint at hidden mental-health conditions (2019)

Not to take away from some of these comments, but the article does not mention anything about casual observation of the eyes signalling mental health issues. The article is highlighting research on diagnosing disorders of the brain using ophthalmological methods (e.g. optical coherence tomography to measure retinal thickness, electroretinography to measure electrical signaling in rods and cones, and angiography to assess retinal vasculature). Apparently, these non-invasive methods may be used as an additional diagnostic tool in diagnosis of a variety of disorders, and may even be early indicators of brain disorders that have not yet manifested themselves in psychological disturbances.

This is just personal, but once I had to help my aunt during an extreme bipolar episode. She was violent, paranoid, and hallucinating. One of the most haunting things from that time was her eyes. They seemed hard and staring. When she looked at you, it didn’t feel like it was her in there. Her eyes weren’t shiny and expressive like normal. There was just something frantic and non human in them. Maybe it was just the extreme stress from feeling like people were coming for her, but it’s interesting to hear another avenue for getting insight into mental health disorders.

The privacy impact of this is immense, as if you can imagine doing ML training on millions of mugshots to create a model for scanning people&#x27;s eyes, we&#x27;ve now got super-fancy phrenology. Who needs morality when you have biostatistical markers.<p>It&#x27;s conceivable we could probably do the same with gait and voice analysis for other issues as well.

When I saw the title I thought of people I know who have “crazy eyes” (as I’ve heard it called). I can’t even define what it is, but know it when I see it, and often that person seems off somehow. I’ve been trying to decide for a while if it’s real or some sort of confirmation bias after I know them better.

Note that the article included concussions and multiple sclerosis.<p>If anyone had a concussion and has symptoms months later, you can do visual rehab exercises to help address long run symptoms. This + neck rehab resolved my post concussion symptoms very rapidly. They had persisted for months until that.<p>Now I’m wondering if continuing to do those exercises can affect the odds of brain lesions. I know my visual tracking is still not 100%. Do things go in both directions: lesions —&gt; vision issues, improving visual tracking —&gt; cause brain to improve lesions through focus to that region. Or would it only be one way? Very interesting to see the retina&#x2F;optic nerve are from the same tissue as the brain.

A lot of crazy people that &#x27;ve met have wide open Eye like if they are always surprised. But i think it&#x27;s more the medication than a condition. Or it could be a biais.

People tense muscles unconsciously. Forcing eyes open is noticeable.<p>What drives folks to force eyes open is fear that aren’t seeing all that they should.

I remember watching some youtube neurologist said &quot;Eyes are only part of the brain visible outside&quot; and then again old saying &quot;The eyes are the mirror of the soul&quot;

I read that rapidly darting eye movements are characteristic of cluster A personality disorders (schizotypal, ...)<p>Wonder if it reflects something in the eyes.

I&#x27;m not implying by any means that gender or sexual expression is a mental-health condition - but i&#x27;ve always thought my &#x27;gaydar&#x27; pings with certain eyes, specifically male eyes with longer more &#x27;feminine&#x27; lashes. probably confirmation bias but I&#x27;ve wondered if others have noticed this

This is anecdotal, but I&#x27;ve noticed that prepubescent kids under a lot of stress and anxiety often wear glasses at a young age - either they have very strict parents with lots of rules (and sometimes anger issues) or parents who are having marital issues that make the child feel very insecure.

Eyes are brain