Flashing lights from television screens are the likely cause of convulsions and other ailments that hit viewers of a popular cartoon program Tuesday evening, according to experts who gathered in Tokyo to discuss the incident.
After examining a tape of the "Pocket Monsters" episode, pediatricians and psychiatrists said the show repeatedly emitted light stimulation that could cause convulsions. It is known among experts that flashing lights can sometimes lead to convulsions, regardless of program content.
Many people are not affected by such flashing, but some who are predisposed to it could become sick or even have seizures, the experts said. "Five to 10 percent of the population is said to be susceptible to flashing lights," said Shunsuke Otawara, a professor emeritus at Okayama University Medical School. Children around 5 to 15 years old are most sensitive, and two-thirds of people afflicted are female.
Recent studies show that stimuli such as red lights, perpendicular light patterns and lights flashed at 10 to 30 times per second are particularly apt to cause fits, he said. Although some doctors have pointed out that the people afflicted by the "Pokemon" episode may have suffered epileptic fits, children who are not epileptic could have been affected by the show's intensely flickering lights, experts said.
Toshio Yamauchi, a professor at Saitama Medical School and a leading epilepsy specialist, said convulsions are likely to be diagnosed as "light-induced fits." The symptom is different from "light sensitive epilepsy," which epileptics would suffer from light stimulation.
The Japan Epilepsy Association released a statement that "Pocket Monsters" should not be linked to epilepsy without a doctors' diagnosis, in an effort to avoid discrimination against people with epilepsy.