Researchers specializing in psychiatry and psychology at the University of Helsinki examined theEffects of depressionon visual perception. The study confirmed that the processing of visual information is altered in depressed people. It is a phenomenon that is most likely related to the processing of information in the cerebral cortex.
Visual perception is affected by depression
In the study, the researchers compared the visual perception of depressed people with those of a control group. For this purpose two visual tests were used. These perception tests involved comparing the brightness and contrast of simple patterns. The researchers discovered a visual perception disorder. People with depression found the visual illusions shown, i.e. the contrast, to be weaker compared to people in the control group who did not suffer from depression.
“What was surprising was that depressed patients perceived the contrast of the images shown differently than non-depressed people,” says Viljami Salmela, research fellow at the Academy of Finland. “Contrast was suppressed by about 20% in non-depressed subjects, while the corresponding figure was about 5% in depressed patients.”
The knowledge could improve therapies
It is important that these changes and disorders in the brain are recognized and understood. This understanding could serve as an additional tool in assessing the effects of various therapies. This in turn could contribute to improving therapies. For this reason, the researchers would also like to conduct further studies in order to gain a more detailed insight into the changes and to better understand the visual perception disturbed by depression.
“It would be beneficial to evaluate and further develop the utility of perceptual testing, both as a research method and as a potential method for identifying information processing disorders in patients,” says Salmela. However, this does not mean that tests for visual perception are also suitable for diagnosis. Salmela emphasizes that the differences are far too small and can only be determined when comparing groups directly.
The Studywas published in the Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience.
