Abstract

Very recent preliminary findings concerning the alerting capacities of light stimulus with long-wavelengths suggest the existence of neural pathways other than melatonin suppression that trigger the nonvisual response. Though the nonvisual effects of light during the daytime have not been investigated thoroughly, they are definitely worth investigating. The purpose of the present study is to enrich existing evidence by describing how quantitative electroencephalography (EEG) signal analysis can give insight into the measurement of the acute nonvisual response observed in brain states generated during daytime exposure to light (when melatonin secretion is negligible). EEG changes were assessed in 19 subjects during the daytime while being exposed to both short- (blue, 72 μW/cm2) and long-wavelength (red, 18 μW/cm2) radiation. We showed that artificial light stimulus as low as 40 lux decreases the synchronization in the upper theta, lower alpha, and upper alpha EEG activity spectrum. The direction of change was consistent with an increased level of alertness. We can conclude that EEG analysis is an indicator of the acute nonvisual response to daytime light. Surprisingly, the response was more spread over the scalp during exposure to red light than to blue light. According to our study, the response to long-wavelength stimulus that inhibits sleepiness, thereby inducing alertness, also takes place at the bright part of the 24-hr day when human beings are naturally predisposed to be exposed to a high level of sunlight: between 12 and 4 PM. The absorption spectrum of the nonvisual system seems to have different characteristics than was previously suspected: it is not dominated by the short-wavelengths, but involves long-wavelengths. Since we observed the predominance of the red-light alerting effect over the blue-light in this experiment, we conclude that more than one mechanism, beyond the melatonin pathway, must be involved.

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Authors (7)