Visual discomfort and chromatic flickers

Abstract

Flickering patterns that shift in chromaticity can be uncomfortable and may trigger epileptic seizures, though the underlying factors are not fully understood. In the spatial domain, chromatic contrast in images is a potential predictor of visual discomfort, with higher contrast generally leading to increased discomfort. This study investigated whether chromatic contrast between two flickering colors in a uniform field influences discomfort. Participants rated their subjective discomfort for various flickering color combinations defined by the CIE L*a*b* uniform color space. Overall, discomfort increased with both chromatic and brightness contrasts. Additionally, flickers containing highly saturated red generally caused greater discomfort compared to those without red, an effect not observed with low saturation. Our findings suggest that visual discomfort induced by time-varying chromatic patterns is partly influenced by chromatic contrast over time. Furthermore, unlike the spatial domain, discomfort in the temporal domain may be specifically associated with the hue of red.