With the Japanese “diet goggles” being in the news this week, and reading a touching blog post about another dementia patient who’s experiencing visual disturbances, I couldn’t help but think about my Dad. I’ve written before about the strange things he would see as his dementia progressed, from black dogs to babies in the woods behind my parents’ house.
It makes me wonder, what do Alzheimer’s patients really see? My dad could look straight through my mom and ask where she was in the next breath. What did he really see? Did he forget that quickly, or did he see something else in place of my mom? He would think I was on one side of the room when I was on the other. When he looked at me, what did he actually see?
It’s almost like some kind of Halloween gag that never ends. A cruel virtual reality that’s created by the brain, not by technology.
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The Memories Project 
That’s exactly what I mean, Joy. What do they see? I often see Mum looking round the room and she’s clearly seeing something. Sometimes she will pet an imaginary dog or talk to a small child that she sees right in front of her. How on earth can the brain distort things to that degree? Of course, if we knew the answers, we’d be halfway there!