Hi everybody,
An interesting finding was recently published in the Journal of Biological Psychiatry: depressed people have a reduced ability to perceive contrast. See
http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2010/07/feeling_blue_seeing_gray.php for more.
(Bubl, E., et al. (2010). Seeing Gray When Feeling Blue? Depression Can Be Measured in the Eye of the Diseased. Biol. Psychiatry 68: 205-208. DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2010.02.009. )
There has been anecdotal evidence that the world “grays” and loses color for many depressed people, but this is the first study I have seen that has explored this area. Apparently, and surprisingly, this appears not to be a brain phenomenon, but an eye phenomenon. According to the authors, the test could diagnose depression with 90% accuracy.
I have never seen this written, but one person I know was able to regain color in their world with high doses of fish oil/omega 3’s—also perhaps an eye phenomenon rather than a brain phenomenon (the retina contains a high proportion of DHA, one of the components of fish oil.) I’d love to see a study on this.
Richard
