If you have ever felt depressed, or even had times you were just feeling a bit sad or down, you may have noticed that the world around you actually seems to lack color. Well, it’s not just your imagination, and it may be an indicator that you are suffering from clinical depression.
Recently, www.sciencedaily.com published a study conducted by German scientists at Freiburg University. The researchers, led by Dr. Ludger Tebartz van Elst, studied the eyes of two groups of individuals: those who were healthy, and those who were depressed. They used ECGs to gather their data on the participants, and observed how the retina responded to various white and black contrasts.
Their study revealed that people who are depressed are unable to discern visual contrasts – which is one of the reasons why, to them, everything around them seems dull and colorless. And when things lack color, they are generally less enjoyable – which of course, doesn’t help the depression.
While further research will need to be done, the retinal response observed by this method could provide a way to measure depression and also lead to new ways to diagnose and treat it.
