Abstract
The use of color-tinted lenses can introduce profound effects into how we process visual information at the early to late stages. Besides mediating harsh lighting conditions, some evidence suggests that color-tinted lenses can influence how humans respond to emotional events. In this study, we systematically evaluated how color-tinted lenses modified our participants’ psychophysiological responses to emotion-inducing images. The participants passively viewed pleasant, neutral or unpleasant images from the International-Affective-Picture-System (IAPS), while wearing none, blue, red, yellow or green tinted-lenses that were controlled for luminance. Established neuroergonomic indices of arousal were measured on the autonomic level, namely Skin-Conductance-Response (SCR) and Heart-Rate-Variability (HRV), and on the cortical level, with electroencephalography (EEG) event-related potentials (ERPs). Phasic SCR responses were significantly enhanced for unpleasant images and both pleasant and unpleasant images induced significantly larger ERP amplitudes of the Late-Positive-Potential (LPP), with pleasant images having the greatest impact. Interestingly, a significant main effect was found for tint. Similar to viewing pleasant images, red-tinted lenses induced the largest LPPs. Taken together, these findings suggest that the autonomic response to affective images is modulated at the cortical level of processing, congruent with the use of red-tinted lenses.
Highlights
It is claimed that soldiers of the US Civil War were prescribed glasses with colored lenses with the intention to treat disorders such as depression (Henry, 2016)
Increased autonomic arousal was found to unpleasant pictures and enhanced cortical reaction to pleasant pictures as well as to red-tinted lenses. This suggests that unintentional responses to unpleasant events are modulated at the cortical level; this regulation can be achieved by tinted lenses
Since late positive potential (LPP) changed mainly to pleasant and surprisingly not to unpleasant events, we expected a positive influence of tinted lenses on affective processing
Summary
It is claimed that soldiers of the US Civil War were prescribed glasses with colored lenses with the intention to treat disorders such as depression (Henry, 2016). This practice gave rise to the phrase ‘‘To see the world through rose colored glasses,’’ which refers to individuals who hold a positive outlook on life. Regardless of the veracity of this apocryphal tale, color is an important ubiquitous feature of the visual world that the brain is highly selective for. Color can exert a strong influence on physiology. The Influence of Tint on Visual Affective Processing
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