The relationship between visual discomfort and cortical excitability in cone-opponent stimuli

O'Hare, L ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0331-3646, Goodwin, P ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1396-2626 and Sharman, R, 2022. The relationship between visual discomfort and cortical excitability in cone-opponent stimuli. Brain Research: 148142. ISSN 0006-8993

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Abstract

Increased colour contrast can induce visual discomfort, but there is little research on the effect of hue. Colour is processed via one or more information streams or channels. We hypothesized that hues which activate more than one channel would induce greater visual discomfort, as they will demand greater neural resources. Normally-sighted young observers made discomfort judgments of isoluminant stimuli of varying hue and contrast whilst EEG was recorded. As predicted, stimuli recruiting more than one channel were more uncomfortable, and this increased with contrast. Uncomfortable stimuli showed increased N2 event-related potentials and decreased alpha-band oscillations, potentially indicating increased neural excitability. This is evidence that increased neural responses are related to visual discomfort for chromatic stimuli. Furthermore, it suggests that the origins of visual discomfort are in early visual areas, when colour is represented in a cone-opponent space, rather than later areas where colour representation is determined by perceptual similarity.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Brain Research
Creators:	O'Hare, L., Goodwin, P. and Sharman, R.
Publisher:	Elsevier
Date:	2 November 2022
ISSN:	0006-8993
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1016/j.brainres.2022.148142 DOI 1613552 Other
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Laura Ward
Date Added:	27 Oct 2022 08:25
Last Modified:	02 Nov 2023 03:00
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/47313

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