The common cold, pattern sensitivity and contrast sensitivity

Results from two studies involving challenge with respiratory syncytial viruses showed that volunteers who developed colds were more sensitive to a visually distracting pattern presented prior to virus challenge than were volunteers who did not get a cold. Volunteers with sub-clinical infections reported more illusions after virus challenge than they had done before, whereas uninfected volunteers and those with colds tended to report fewer illusions on the second test. These effects did not occur when volunteers were challenged with either a coronavirus or rhinovirus. Overall, the results confirm that behavioural measures may be related to susceptibility to subsequent illness, and that viral infections may influence visual perception. They also show that the effects vary according to the nature of the infecting agent, which agrees with results from studies looking at other aspects of behaviour.