Mesopic Visual Contrast Sensitivity in Patients with Major Depression

Abstract

The present study evaluated the effects of major depression on visual contrast sensitivity (CS) at low mesopic luminance (.7 cd/m2 mean luminance), a condition that has been little explored in the literature. We measured spatial visual CS in 20 male volunteers aged 20 - 30 years, including 10 healthy individuals and 10 medicated individuals with major depression, to linear sine-wave gratings of .25, 1.0, and 4.0 cycles per degree (cpd) of visual angle using the psychophysical staircase method with forced choice. The average spatial visual CS in the depressed group was approximately 1.7 lower than the average spatial visual CS in the control group. However, the post hoc test showed significant differences only at the spatial frequencies of .25 and 1.0 cpd (p < .05), which are likely processed by the magnocellular visual pathway. These results suggest that spatial visual CS to sine-wave gratings should be used to evaluate the responsiveness of the visual system in patients with major depression under conditions of low luminance.

Share and Cite:

Nogueira, R. , Espínola, E. , Lacerda, A. & Santos, N. (2013). Mesopic Visual Contrast Sensitivity in Patients with Major Depression. Open Journal of Depression, 2, 82-86. doi: 10.4236/ojd.2013.24014.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1] Adams, R. J., & Courage, M. L. (2010). Using a single test to measure human contrast sensitivity from early childhood to maturity. Vision Research, 42, 1205-1210. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0042-6989(02)00038-X
[2] Akutsu, H., & Legge, G. E. (1995). Discrimination of compound gratings: Spatial-frequency channels or local features? Vision Research, 35, 2685-2695. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0042-6989(95)00030-4
[3] American Psychiatric Association (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington DC.
[4] Bodis-Wollner, I., & Tzelepi, A. (1998). The push-pull action of dopamine on spatial tuning of the monkey retina: The effects of dopaminergic deficiency and selective D1 and D2 receptor ligands on the pattern electroretinogram. Vision Research, 38, 1479-1487. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0042-6989(98)00028-5
[5] Bour, L. J., & Apkarian, P. (1996). Selective broad-band spatial frequency loss in contrast sensitivity functions: Comparison with a model based on optical transfer functions. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, 37, 2475-2484.
[6] Bubl, E., Kern, E., Ebert, D., Bach. M., & Tebartz van Elst, L. (2010). Seeing gray when feeling blue? Depression can be measured in the eye of the diseased. Biological Psychiatry, 68, 205-208. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2010.02.009
[7] Burbeck, C. A., & Kelly, D. H. (1981). Contrast gain measurements and the transient/sustained dichotomy. Journal of the Optical Society of America, 71, 1335-1342.
[8] Cavalcanti, A. M., & Santos, N. A. (2005). Os efeitos da depressão na função de sensibilidade ao contraste em humanos: Achados preliminares. Revista Brasileira de Terapias Cognitivas, 1, 50-59.
[9] Chen, Y., Levy, D. L., Sheremata, S., Nakayama, K., Matthysse, S., & Holzman, P. S., (2003). Effects of typical, atypical and no antipsychotic drugs on visual contrast detection in Schizophrenia. American Journal Psychiatry, 160, 1795-1801. http://dx.doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.160.10.1795
[10] Duman, R. S., Heninger, G. R., & Nestler, E. J. (1997). A molecular and cellular theory of depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 54, 597-606. http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.1997.01830190015002
[11] Elliott, D. B., & Situ, P. (1998). Visual acuity versus letter contrast sensitivity in early cataract. Vision Research, 38, 2047-2052.
[12] Fountoulakis, K. N., Foutiou, F., Iacovides, A., & Kaprinis, G. (2005). Is there a dysfunction in the visual system of depressed patients? Annals of General Psychiatry, 4, 1-10.
[13] Harris, J. P., Calvert, J. E., Leendertz, J. A., & Phillipson, O. T. (1990). The influence of dopamine on spatial vision. Eye, 4, 806-812. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/eye.1990.127
[14] Hébert, M., Beattie, C. W., Tam, E. M., Yatham, L. N., & Lam, R. W. (2004). Electroretinography in patients with winter seasonal affective disorder. Psychiatry Research, 127, 27-34. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2004.03.006
[15] Lam, R. W., Beattie, C. W., Buchanan, A., Remick, R. A., & Zis, A. P. (1991). Low electrooculographic ratios in patients with seasonal affective disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 148, 1526-1529.
[16] Lavoie, M. P., Lam, R. W., Bouchard, G., Sasseville, A., Charron, M. C., Gagné, A. M., Tremblay, P., Filteau, M. J., & Hébert, M. (2009). Evidence of a biological effect of light therapy on the retina of patients with seasonal affective disorder. Biological Psychiatry, 66, 253-258. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2008.11.020
[17] Lee, B. B., Martin, P. R., & Valberg, A. (1989) Sensitivity of macaque retinal ganglion cells to chromatic and luminance flicker. Journal of Physiology, 414, 223-243.
[18] Livingstone, M. S., & Hubel, D. H. (1987). Psychophysical evidence for separate channels for the perception of form, color, movement, and depth. Journal of Neuroscience, 7, 3416-3468.
[19] Michelson, A. A. (1891). On the application of interference methods to spectroscopic measurements. The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science, 31, 338-346. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14786449108620117
[20] Murray, I. J., Parry, N. R. A., & Carden, D. (1987). Human visual evoked potentials to chromatic and achromatic gratings. Clinical Visual Science, 1, 231-244.
[21] O’Donnell, B. F., Potts, G. F., Nestor, P. G., Stylianopoulos, K. C., Shenton, M. E., & McCarley, R. W. (2002). Spatial frequency discrimination in Schizophrenia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 111, 620-625. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-843X.111.4.620
[22] Polat, U, Sagi, D., & Norcia, A. M. (1997). Abnormal long-range spatial interactions in Amblyoplia. Vision Research, 37, 737-744. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0042-6989(96)00154-X
[23] Santos, N. A., & Andrade, S. M. (2012). Visual contrast sensitivity in patients with impairment of functional independence after stroke. BMC Neurology, 12, 90. http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2377-12-90
[24] Santos, N. A., Andrade, S. M., & Fernandez Calvo, B. (2013). Detection of spatial frequency in brain-damaged patients: Influence of hemispheric asymmetries and hemineglect. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 7, 1-6.
[25] Skottun, B. C., & Skoyles, J. R. (2011). On identifying magnocellular and parvocellular responses on the basis of contrast-response functions. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 37, 23-26. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbq114
[26] Slaghuis, W. L. (1998). Contrast sensitive for stationary and drifting spatial frequency gratings in positive- and negative-symptom Schizophrenia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 107, 49-62. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-843X.107.1.49
[27] Slaghuis, W. L., & Thompson, A. K. (2003). The effect of peripheral visual motion on focal contrast sensitivity in positive- and negative-symptom Schizophrenia. Neuropsychology, 41, 968-980.
[28] Solomon, A. (2002). O demônio do meio-dia: Uma anatomia da depressão. Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva.
[29] Souza, G. S., Gomes, B. D., Saito, C. A., Silva Filho, M., & Silveira, L. C. L. (2007). Spatial luminance contrast sensitivity measured with transient VEP: Comparison with psychophysics and evidence of multiple mechanisms. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, 48, 3396-3404. http://dx.doi.org/10.1167/iovs.07-0018
[30] Szabó, Z., Antal, A., Tokaji, Z., Kálmán, J., Kéri, S., Benedek, G., & Janka, Z. (2004). Light therapy increases visual contrast sensitivity in seasonal affective disorder. Psychiatry Research, 126, 15-21. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2003.12.013
[31] Valberg, A., & Rudvin, I. (1997). Possible contributions of magnocellular- and parvocellular-pathway cells to transient VEPs. Visual Neuroscience, 14, 1-11. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0952523800008701
[32] Vassilev, A., Stomonyakov, V., & Manahilov, V. (1994). Spatial-frequency specific contrast gain and flicker masking of human transient VEP. Visual Research, 34, 863-872. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0042-6989(94)90036-1
[33] Ventura, D. F., Simões, A. L., Tomaz, S., Costa, M. F., Lago, M., Costa, M. T. V., Canto-Pereira, L. H. M., Souza, J. M., Faria, M. A. M., & Silveira, L. C. L. (2005). Colour vision and contrast sensitivity losses of mercury intoxicated industry workers in Brazil. Environmental Toxicology and Pharmacology, 19, 523-529.
[34] Vleugels, L., van Nunen, A., Lafosse, C., Ketelaer, P., & Vandenbussche, E. (1998). Temporal and spatial resolution in foveal vision of multiple sclerosis patients. Vision Research, 38, 2987-2997.
[35] Wesner, M. F., & Tan, J. (2006). Contrast sensitivity in seasonal and nonseasonal depression. Journal of Affective Disorders, 95, 19-28.
[36] Wetherill, G. B., & Levitt, H. (1965). Sequential estimation of points on a psychometric function. British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology, 18, 1-10. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8317.1965.tb00689.x
[37] Wolman, B. B., & Stricker, G. (1990). Depressive disorders: Facts, theories, and treatment methods. New York: Wiley.
[38] World Health Organization (2001). Mental health: New understanding, new hope. http://www.who.int/whr/2001/en
[39] World Health Organization (2012). Depression: What is depression?

Copyright © 2024 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc.

Creative Commons License

This work and the related PDF file are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.