The SpOTT diagnosis for ME/CFS

With the help of some eye drops I managed greater than 5, 6 and 7 minutes. Early on in each attempt there were a few blinks but I managed to focus without blinking for most of the time. I wasn't able to get the dot to disappear regardless of how I tried to focus on it. I found the act of focusing itself is quite difficult.

The only other interesting thing was that after focusing for about 2-3 minutes my peripheral vision would suddenly become very dim. It would pulsate between the normal light intensity and very dark, as if the lights were almost completely off, or a cloud had moved in front of the sun. It would alternate between light and dark every few seconds while the dot remained largely the same.
 
I’m making the same official report as Eddie, but with 2:44, 3:05 and 2:47 minutes.
Eddie said:
I managed greater than 5, 6 and 7 minutes
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There is a kind of phenomenon of solarisation (as with film photography). The white wall turns grey and the black spot also turns grey, but I can’t help moving – even if it’s just breathing – so the spot seems to move and turns black again.

In my sense it worked for me with the wood panelling because the mark is shapeless and the contrast between the background and the mark is less pronounced: the tones eventually even out and the knot is absorbed into an intermediate tone.

It doesn’t use much power, but it’s annoying that it doesn’t work.
 
My first attempts failed. Did them sitting on a kitchen stool stool because that was the only place from which it was possible to stare at a suitable blank wall. But just as the dot started to fade a little I'd start to feel slightly dizzy and very shortly after that did an involuntary mini-jerk, a bit like when you jerk back awake as you're drifting off to sleep but milder, and that brought the dot right back into focus. I guess my brain was trying to protect me from falling off my stool

So after some picture rearranging to clear another wall I tried again, this time lying down, and now it was easy to make the dot disappear: 9sec, 30sec, 17sec

Note that I didn't have a post-it so used a small piece of masking tape instead, very similar in colour to the off-white wall and barely larger than the dot itself. Don't know if the lack of a post-it "frame" makes it easier?

Also, I used a manual kitchen timer instead of my phone. It's easier and less distracting to physically rest my thumb on a tactile start/stop button rather than trying to hit the right place on a phone screen all while looking at a wall (it's probably possible to set the phone timer to operate from a physical button, too, but I couldn't be stuffed figuring that out)
 
I tried it.

Time to spot obliteration was 6 minutes 20 seconds. The dot was 0,5 cm in diameter at a distance of about 2 meters.

I found it impossible to avoid blinking and it seemed to reset my eye's focus on the dot, delaying the spot obliteration. Nevertheless, as time went on, my eyes started to drift a little away from the dot, remaining within a circle of about 4 cm centered on the dot. I kept bringing them back. It felt like my vision was tiring and getting closer to the point of spot obliteration. Then the dot almost completely disappeared. Only a faint grey shape remained.
 
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Speaking of visual issues, I sometimes get a dark spot in the center of my vision associated with intense physical activity, for example while walking uphill or upstairs. I think it is a blood flow issue. It looks like what is produced by pressure on the eye, but persists for tens of seconds to a few minutes.
 
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chillier said:
This is one of my most major and consistent symptoms though I don't hear it talked about that much. Everything I look at stains my vision as if I'd just been staring right at the sun. When I look away from this block of text on the screen in front of me right now or close my eyes I get white grid lines in my vision from where the white text has stained it. Do others get this too? Not sure what to call this symptom exactly. In the category of light sensitivity somehow.
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Same here! If something is bright enough, its afterimage gets stamped into my vision and can stay there for 20+ minutes. I don’t think it’s simply light sensitivity..maybe it’s a combination of visual/optic nerve sensitivity and the brain’s processing of visual stimuli.
 
I tried it three times, separated by an hour. I managed to not blink for around 1 to 1.5 minutes each time, but the spot never disappeared. It had moments of getting a bit dimmer, I think between saccades.

I notice a lot of saccades. Even though the image doesn't seem to really move, I feel my eyes slightly twitch every few seconds. That might be why it doesn't disappear.

This is with a black dot about .5 cm in diameter on the wall, and sitting about 5-6 feet away.
 
Jonathan Edwards said:
The task is to get comfortable in a chair and to stare at a blank white wall on which has been put a standard spot. Maybe there should be some discussion about what a standard spot should be but i will suggest a 1cm square of pale Post-It sticky notesheet (with some sticky to stick) on to which a 0.5cm filled in black circle has been made with biro.
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Sorry if I missed it: Is it important that the notesheet has a slighlty different colour than the background where it's put on?

Or can both notesheet and wall/ ceiling be white (will be slightly different shades of white anyway?).

Also as it's easier for me to have a summary , hope it's OK to summarize the preparation bit:

  1. Find a blank white wall or ceiling on which you can stare at with a distance of 1,5 m from a comfortable position (sitting or lying)
  2. Make a 0.5cm filled in black circle with a biro on a 1cm square of pale Post-It sticky notesheet
  3. Stick the Post-It on the wall/ ceiling
  4. Get comfortabe in a chair/ in your bed, sofa etc. and stare at the black spot on the notesheet

[Anyone else has the capacities to coninue? ]

Will do the test later today if my partner is in the mood to assist.
 
attempt 1:
failure: Managed 1 min 30 without blinking and continued on for another 4 min 35 seconds with blinking

attempt 2:
failure: Managed 49 sec w/o blinking and continued for another 5 min 21 sec

attempt 3:
failure: Managed 48 sec w/o blinking and continued for another 3 min 33 sec

My peripheral vision did grey out though like others, and I got a sort of white ghost image of the dot that would superimpose on top of it but never actually make it disappear.

I don't have quantitative data for my healthy control as yet but they also weren't able to obliterate the spot
 
Some reports:

Organis Chilli: no disappearance x3
Eleanor: >2min 30sec (one run)
Eddie: >5min. >6min. >7min
Trish: cannot do the test
Ravn: 9sec. 30sec. 17sec
Hoopoe: 6min 20sec (one run)
Forestglip: >1min. >1min. >1min
Fero: >35 secs. >2 mins. >3 min 36 secs
Chillier: >4min. >5min. >3min
Obeat: >65secs. >110secs. >105secs

Seems as if people with ME/CFS may have difficulty getting the spot to go. The next question is how many controls can do it!
 
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