When musician David Bowie passed away in 2016, there were many articles about him that were accompanied by photos. People began to comment on his differently colored eyes, a condition called heterochromia, when actually Bowie had another condition altogether — a condition known as anisocoria.
What is Anisocoria?
Anisocoria is a condition in which a person’s eyes have different sized pupils. Normally, the pupils of the eyes are equal in size, but in individuals with anisocoria, one pupil may be larger or smaller than the other. Anisocoria can be temporary or persistent and can affect one or both eyes.
In Bowie’s case, it was actually the result of a fight with a classmate. Bowie was punched in his left eye. His friend’s fingernail scratched the surface of Bowie’s eye paralyzing the muscles that contract the iris.
Bowie’s eyes were blue. But because the pupil in his left eye was so large, it appeared black and made it look as though his eyes were different colors.
Other causes of anisocoria include (but are not limited to):
- a nervous system problem (such as traumatic brain injury, tumors, or aneurysms)
- eye conditions (such as glaucoma or uveitis)
- medications (for example, certain eye drops or drugs that affect the nervous system)
- viral infection (such as meningitis)
What if You Have Unexplained Anisocoria?
The treatment for anisocoria depends on the underlying cause. In some cases, no treatment is necessary, while in others, medical or surgical intervention may be required.
If you or someone you know has a new onset or an unexplained occurrence of anisocoria, it will require a visit to your eye doctor for proper diagnosis. As noted above, it could be related to another more serious medical condition.
To schedule an appointment with Atlantic Medical Eye Care in central New Jersey, simply contact us — we’re happy to see you and help you care for your vision.
I understand the Bowie was not apparently, born with heterochromia; However, if you take the colour of the outer parts of both of his irises, the colours do not match. The right, normal eye was a much brighter blue than the hazel/grey of the left. Maybe this shade variation is not obvious to those who can see less of the colour spectrum, but it is very obvious to many.
Taking colour samples on multiple photos backs this up.
I wonder if Bowie actually had heterochromia prior to the injury which caused the anisocoria, or if the colour change was a result of the injury?
My guess is that he was under glaucoma medication (hypotenseur) to lower the intra-ocular pression and hinder the risk of forming a glaucoma. This medication is known to alter iris colour.
Bowie himself stated that both of his eyes were the same color. It’s an effect of the light and the fact that his pupil was permanently frozen open that makes his eyes look a different color in photographs. I wish I could remember exactly where I read that but I can’t. His eye was permanently damaged in a fight with his lifelong friend Geoff Underwood in an argument over a girl.
The shade variation is obvious to everyone.
Because his iris was “compressed” by the dilated pupil, it was darker. Imagine it like it was a more concentrated version of his iris with the less dilated pupil.
You can clearly see the same kind of color change in cats, since their pupils have a big size variation due to light.
I have minor differences in eye color, like one eye is clearly more green then the other, but it’s subtle enough that they’re both still in the hazel-green realm, my right closer to hazel and my left closer to green, so does that qualify as heterochromia? I don’t think so because it’s too subtle and at a certain point it’s probably true that everyone has minor variations in color between their eyes.
Furthermore, I technically also have some minor aniscoria I’ve noticed (most likely from a head injury/concussion that induced a seizure from an accident I assume, though I’ve done plenty of substances and other stuff since that incident that could explain it but I still think that specific injury was the probably catalyst), but again it’s quite subtle and the kind of thing no one else but me would even notice, unless I brought them into very good lighting (bright enough to clearly see yet not so bright that it makes my pupil’s too small to notice the difference) and they may be able to notice at very close range with careful analysis, like I think my optometrist might notice and that’s about it lol. Actually if I recall correctly I think I once brought it up and he confirmed it but said it wasn’t significant enough to be clinically remarkable, so that seems about right.
Now all that said, I could technically argue I have both heterochromia and aniscoria — however I wouldn’t really make such a claim because it’s ultimately a matter of degree, although the thresholds seem quite difficult to characterize precisely — perhaps someone at a certain point on a standard distribution outside of the norm, maybe 2-3 standard deviations outside the normal variation in relative simultaneous pupil circumference or some kind of scientific color shading scale I’m unfamiliar with lol, or perhaps a certain percentage different between the simultaneous circumferences of each of one’s two respective pupils, and then some similar relative percentage difference threshold between the color of the one’s two irises in some kind of scientific color scaling terms that I’m not familiar with but will be googling now? Lol fun, now I may have some questions and possibly ideas for next optometrist visit lol.