How depression may affect vision?

People who are depressed may experience changes in their visual perception. The reason for these changes lies in the impact of the mental disorder on the cerebral cortex, Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience reported.

According to Nypost.com, researchers from Finland have shown that changes in the cerebral cortex in people with severe episodes of depression lead to abnormal visual perception. These are the results of a study involving 111 depressed patients and 29 healthy controls.

The patients who came to the attention of scientists fought with monopolar and bipolar disorders, borderline personality disorder, they faced serious depressive episodes.

Scientists conducted two visual tests in which participants evaluated the brightness and contrast of common visual images.

After 7 months, the tests were repeated. It turned out that the victims of depression felt the contrast in a very different way than people without depression. In the first case, the contrast seemed stronger.

This is the first scientific study to assess the effects of depression on visual perception.