Psychological State Influences Color Perception (07-21-10)

Everyday expressions link psychological depression with the color gray.  Recent research indicates there’s a reason for that and shows how much mental state influences perception of the world.  Depressed people, whether they are taking medication or not, see the world as grayed out; they are not as able to notice contrasts. The more depressed people are, the more grayed their vision is.  This makes color perception a potential diagnostic tool and also helps explain differing responses to colors presented in palettes, etc.

Emanuel Bubi, Elena Kern, Dieter Ebert, Michael Bach, and Ludger van Elst.  2010. “Seeing Gray When Feeling Blue?  Depression Can Be Measured in the Eye of the Diseased.”  Biological Psychiatry, vol. 68, no 2, pp. 205-208.