What are the colorful moving shapes we see when we close our eyes and rub them?
When the eyes are closed but not covered, the visual system doesn't turn off [4]. Instead, it's active and produces phosphenes, which are bursts of electrical charges from the retina that deliver messages to the brain [1, 3, 4]. These messages are perceived as colors and shapes [3, 4].
The colorful shapes we see when we close our eyes and rub them are called phosphene [1]. It is a phenomenon where our visual system - eyes and brains - don't shut off when denied light [1]. Photoreceptors, cells in the retina that detect light, will react to pressure the same as they would to light [2]. Thus, when we rub our eyes, we are stimulating the photoreceptors and causing them to send a message to our brain [2]. Phosphenes are like visual noise that our retinas make [3].