Effect of brightness of visual stimuli on EEG signals

The aim of this study was to examine brightness effect, which is the perceptual property of visual stimuli, on brain responses obtained during visual processing of these stimuli. For this purpose, brain responses of the brain to changes in brightness were explored comparatively using different emotional images (pleasant, unpleasant and neutral) with different luminance levels. In the study, electroencephalography recordings from 12 different electrode sites of 31 healthy participants were used. The power spectra obtained from the analysis of the recordings using short time Fourier transform were analyzed, and a statistical analysis was performed on features extracted from these power spectra. Statistical findings were compared with those obtained from behavioral data. The results showed that the brightness of visual stimuli affected the power of brain responses depending on frequency, time and location. According to the statistically verified findings, the increase in the brightness of pleasant and neutral images increased the average power of responses in the parietal and occipital regions whereas the increase in the brightness of unpleasant images decreased the average power of responses in these regions. Moreover, the statistical results obtained for unpleasant images were found to be in accordance with the behavioral data. The results revealed that the brightness of visual stimuli could be represented by changing the activity power of the brain cortex. The findings emphasized that the brightness of visual stimuli should be viewed as an important parameter in studies using emotional image techniques such as image classification, emotion evaluation and neuro-marketing.