Tag Archives: data-highlight

“Researchers at the University of Freiburg in Germany had previously shown that people with depression have difficulty detecting black-and-white contrast differences. In new research, published in the journal Biological Psychiatry, the team had 40 patients with major depression and 40 healthy individuals view a sequence of five black-and-white checkerboards of different contrasts. Meanwhile, the researchers measured the pattern electroretinogram, which is similar to anelectrocardiogram (ECG) of the retina of the eye. The depressed patients had dramatically lower retinal responses to the varying black-and-white contrasts than healthy individuals. The results held regardless of whether patients were taking antidepressants. “These data highlight the profound ways that depression alters one's experience of the world,” said Dr. John Krystal, editor of the journal. “The poet William Cowper said that 'variety's the very spice of life,' yet when people are depressed, they are less able to perceive contrasts in the visual world. This loss would seem to make the world a less pleasurable place.” http://www.livescience.com/culture/depressed-people-see-gray-world-100720.html added by: DeliaTheArtist