[3] The underlying mechanism is believed to involve excessive excitability of neurons in the right lingual gyrus and left anterior lobe of the cerebellum.

Another hypothesis proposes that visual snow syndrome could be a type of thalamocortical dysrhythmia and may involve the thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN).

A failure of inhibitory action from the TRN to the thalamus may be the underlying cause for the inability to suppress excitatory sensory information.

In these cases, visual snow is a normal reaction of the body, related to the way photoreceptors (rods) and neurons respond to weak or insufficient stimuli.

This syndrome is not just a phenomenon, but a neurological disorder, where a person experiences constant visual disturbances, regardless of lighting conditions.

[16] Visual snow syndrome is usually diagnosed with the following proposed criteria:[17][18][13] Additional and non-visual symptoms like tinnitus, ear pressure, brain fog, and more might be present.

[6] Psychological side effects of visual snow can include depersonalization, derealization, depression, photophobia, and heliophobia in the individual affected.

[33] Medications that may be used include lamotrigine, acetazolamide, verapamil,[4] clonazepam, propranolol, and sertraline[34] but these do not always result in positive effects.

[35][36] A recent study in the British Journal of Ophthalmology has confirmed that common drug treatments are generally ineffective in visual snow syndrome (VSS).