My chemistry-teaching wife thinks "satori" has been used, but I cannot confirm. Apparently there a screen saver out there that mimics the visual phenomena by that name.

Sorry I can't be the repository of all knowledge and wisdom on this one.

Consider it kicked.

I would appreciate a similar boot my way, I'm behind (no pun intended) on my own WIPs

Satori is a Japanese word that defines (roughly) a moment of enlightment, usually associated with a near-death experience. I haven't heard it used in terms of physical vision.

There are a several visual things that go on as far as spots in front of the eyes. The one I think you're referring to is rod/cone fatigue. Here's a link to a simple and technically correct explanation. http://www.worqx.com/color/after_image2.htm

Staring at the sun too long doesn't technically 'burn' your retina. It causes a photochemical injury, which is a fancy way of saying that it messes up your eye chemistry so that you can't see anymore. Because it's a photochemical injury rather than a burn, if you've had only a brief exposure to bright light your vision comes back (and can come back surprisingly quickly) because the chemicals resort themselves back into a configuration that allows vision. However, if you push your luck, the blindness can become permanent. The spots you see are negative images of the brightness. They're dark because the cones and rods are fatigued (their little chemical batteries are all run down) and they can't communicate the information "bright" to your brain until the chemicals sift back into a responsive configuration. You can see around the spot because only the area where the bright light's photons landed are fatigued. The rest of the retina operates normally.

There is also persistence of vision. Persistence of vision is what makes animation work smoothly. If we didn't have it, then we would see animation as a series of freeze frames, which is exactly what animation is. Basically the chemistry in our retina is not instant. It takes time for the chemicals to sort around to tell the brain 'red' 'light' 'blue' and so forth. It's pretty quick, though, so animation frames fly by fast to exploit the persistence of vision.

Side note: if we stare at an object for a long time and then look away, we can see the image as a kind of ghost. What's cool is that because we've fatigued the cones and rods in a certain pattern, the colors on a persisted image that we've stared at is in reverse colors--basically, the chemical arrangements that haven't been fatigued. Greens are reds, blues are yellows, darks are lights, etc. because the chemistry is arranged that way after being all tuckered out.

Yet another phenomenon, where there are just spots that float around for no apparent reason, is a result of a fluid in our eyes (vitrious humor) that's pristine and clear when we're born but becomes less clear as we age (or if we get knocked in the head real good.) The unclear areas create shadows on our retina that move around as the liquid flows around. Weird, eh? The technical term for these shadows is, well, floaters. I'm not kidding.

I hope that helps. I wasn't able to find a short term for retinal fatigue or persistence of vision. Maybe you're a better Googler than I am and you'll be able to find something.

Kami

I've always called them afterimages.

I've used the phrase dazzle blindness in a couple of books.