tl;dr: A review paper in Vision by 32 researchers proposes that repetitive, high-contrast, or flickering visual patterns common in modern environments—striped floors, LED lighting, gridded facades—force the visual cortex to work inefficiently, causing headaches, eye strain, and nausea. Neurodivergent people and those with migraines or epilepsy are disproportionately affected, possibly due to weaker neural suppression. The authors recommend design changes like lower-contrast patterns and precision-tinted lenses, though they acknowledge the proposed metabolic-overload mechanism remains a hypothesis rather than a proven causal link.