Curious Clinicians #127 - The Sunlit Sneeze

Why can sunlight exposure induce sneezing?

Achoo! Ever thought about why you sneezed when you stepped into sunlight? Well, this same question plagued even Aristotle himself, so much so that in The Book of Problems, he asked, “Why is it that one sneezes more after one has looked at the Sun?” His answer was that sneezing resulted from a chain of physical events in which the sun heated the nose, eventually triggering a person to sneeze. But, as you can probably guess, the story is a bit more complicated than that.

1. Identify and accurately explain photic sneezing as an autosomal-dominant reflex triggered by sudden exposure to bright light, and correctly recall the full meaning of the acronym ACHOO.
2. Identify two historical figures who questioned the mechanism behind ACHOO.
3. Explain the optic–trigeminal summation theory by stating how light can trigger the trigeminal nerve and produce a sneeze.

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The planning committee members report having no relevant financial relationships to disclose:

Hannah Abrams 
Tony Breu
Avi Cooper

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Member Information

Role in activity

Nature of Relationship(s) / Name of Ineligible Company(s)

Hannah R Abrams, MD
Fellow
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center

Faculty

Nothing to disclose

Anthony Breu, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Medicine
Harvard Medical School | Boston University School of Medicine

Faculty

Nothing to disclose

Avraham Cooper, MD
Assistant Program Director, Pulmonary Critical Care Medicine
Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center

Faculty

Nothing to disclose