Participants will be given experience wearing colored lenses that add a tint to the environment. Changes in visual perception and neural processing that arise as a result of this experience will be measured. These are expected as participants learn to switch to "colored lenses mode" where the effects of the lenses are discounted and colors appear more normal as soon as the lenses are put on.
All participants will wear tinted lenses for 1 hour at a time, 5 times per day. Perception (behavior) and neural function (with functional MRI and EEG) before and after this experience will be measured. In the neural measurements, activity will be recorded while participants view stripes of many different colors both with the lenses on and off. In the perceptual measurements, participants will adjust the color of a small patch to appear neutral, neither red nor green. Behavior will be measured in a variety of conditions to test different hypotheses about the origins of the mode-switching effects. These include: 1) surrounding the patch with different colors, 2) preceding the presentation of the patch with presentation of different colors, 3) presenting the tests in a red-illuminated room, 4) presenting the tests in a completely darkened room, and 5) using a head-mount-display (virtual reality goggles) to present simulated lenses that gradually change in strength.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
NONE
Wear of colored lenses for 1 hr, 5 times per day, for 5 days
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
Change in unique yellow settings
This is a standard psychophysical measure referenced in 100s of papers. Participants adjust a patch of color until it appears neither red nor green and this color is reported in standard colorimetric coordinates (e.g. CIE).
Time frame: Change will be assessed over the entire study, by comparing a pre-test the day before the intevention (which lasts 5 days) to a post-test the day after the intervention.
Change in BOLD functional MRI activity
Neural activation will be measured with functional MRI which will be used to measure BOLD activity with standard methods, and reported as percent change from rest, a standard measure, for each voxel in the brain.
Time frame: Change will be assessed over the entire study, by comparing a pre-test the day before the intevention (which lasts 5 days) to a post-test the day after the intervention.
Change in EEG activity
Neural activity will be measured with electroencephelography using standard techniques and will be reported as voltage changes over time for each electrode in a standard configuration.
Time frame: Change will be assessed over the entire study, by comparing a pre-test the day before the intevention (which lasts 5 days) to a post-test the day after the intervention.
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