Rods & Ghost Worms - photographic reaction?

[paigetheoracle]

Watching a program called 'The Worlds Scariest Ghosts Caught on Camera', there was a section that covered photos of a young girl, showing a recurrent anomaly - namely segmented light patterns, resembling 'worms'.

 

Watching films of Rods and comparing the effects of wagon wheels appearing to run backwards in films, I wondered if both these phenomena were linked to this as a kind of staccato effect. With the wheels I remember being told it had something to do with the rate of frames moving through the projector and I wondered if Rod films and this ghost worm effect were similar, catching movement of some sort in stages, giving the illusion of sections, when in fact if slowed down, they both might appear as a single object (orb in the case of the photos and single, winged bird or insect, in the case of the films).

 

Is there any photographic expert out there that could confirm if this is the explanation for either appearance, an illusion that the naked eye would miss?

[freeztar]

Here's a thread on it:

http://hypography.com/forums/biology/12718-does-rods-really-exist.html