When the mood is low, the world seems to turn “gray”. German researchers have proved experimentally that “gray” is not just a subjective feeling when you are in a bad mood, but what the eye sees objectively.
Perceiving black and white
Researchers at the University of Freiburg in Germany previously found that depressed people have difficulty perceiving black and white contrasts. This result is based on a psychophysical research method.
Some believe that this method only studies subjective sensations and that the observed results may be due to the patient’s lack of concentration.
A recent study at this university used image electroretinography to measure the perception of black and white contrast in the retinas of depressed people, demonstrating on an objective level that depressed people perceive black and white contrast to a significantly weaker degree than healthy people.
The researchers asked 40 depressed and 40 healthy people to look at a chess board displayed on a computer screen. The small black and white squares on the chessboard were presented with five successive levels of contrast.
The image electroretinogram showed that whether the depressed people were taking antidepressants or not, their retinas were significantly less responsive to the black and white contrast changes than healthy people.
In addition, the more depressed the person was, the weaker the response to black and white contrast changes.
Objective tests
Image electroretinography was used to measure neuronal responses in retinal cells.
Study leader Ludger Tebatz van Elst said the new study used a method that did not have to wait until the subjects themselves realized what they saw, they had already found out what they saw.
The U.S. Fun Science website reported on the 20th citing Van Elst: “We can distinguish between healthy people and depressed patients, which means we find an objective indication of the degree of depression, although the degree of depression is basically a subjective state.”
Van Elst said their study has applications, such as measuring a person’s perception of contrast with image electroretinography after other tests have shown that the person has depression, which could provide objective test data for the test.
In addition, the method could be used to measure whether medications for depression are effective.
The Gray Art
The researchers could not determine why depressed people do not readily perceive changes in black and white contrast. They speculate that the perception of contrast depends on anaglyph cells in the retina.
This cell connects ganglion cells in the retina at the cellular level. The anaplastic cells are dopamine-dependent. This substance is closely related to motivation and attention. Lack of motivation and poor attention are the two main symptoms of depression.
Van Elst said, “We think the retina is the outpost marker that can show the integrity of the dopaminergic system in the whole brain.”
The relationship between depression and gray seems to be borne out in some artists.
French Impressionist Claude Monet is known for his depictions of colorful water lilies, but his 1879 portrait of his dying wife, Camille, is significantly grittier in tone.
Researchers have found that many of Dutch painter Van Gogh’s later works do not concentrate on bright colors as much as his earlier works. In “Wheat Field with Crows,” completed a month before his suicide, the bright yellow wheat field is topped by a gray-blue sky that feels heavy. Researchers speculate that the color of the sky in the painting may be an expression of the artist’s suicidal tendencies.
American abstract expressionist painter Jackson Pollock many works in dark colors. He suffered from depression and alcoholism for a long time.