Chest Cold Means More Internet Games

I'm afflicted with some sort of surprisingly-non-swine-flu-but-instead-cold-like-symptoms business. And while I hate not being able to smoke (quitting soon!), I thought I'd take some of my convalescin' time to look on the brighter side of contagions with these flash games. Enjoy with plenty of fluids. All are via Armor Games.

Phage Wars 1 and Phage Wars 2

Pandemic: American Swine

and

Pandemic 2

Mindstorm: Schizophrenic Episode Simulation

There is a more involved version of this same video that incorporates 3D glasses and simulated olfactory hallucinations. All the same the video does a good job of conveying the experience of the positive symptoms (i.e. ones that are 'added', phenomena that are present but should not be) of schizophrenia. From the website:

Hallucinations are some of the most flagrant and disruptive symptoms that people with schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders can experience. Approximately 70% of people with schizophrenia experience auditory hallucinations (e.g., hearing voices) and 25% experience visual illusions or distortions.

Related:
-Mindstorm's Homepage
-NIMH overview of Schizophrenia
-Virtual Hallucinating Device Drives Police Insane for a Day

Oliver Sacks on Charles Bonnet Syndrome

"Charles Bonnet said, 250 years ago -- he wondered how, thinking of these hallucinations, how, as he put it, the theater of the mind could be generated by the machinery of the brain. Now, 250 years later, I think we're beginning to glimpse how this is done."

Watch the TED talk right here:



More info on the syndrome
More on Oliver Sacks