Environmental Lighting Conditions, Phenomenal Contrast, and the Conscious Perception of Near and Far

Recent evidence in systems neuroscience suggests that lighting conditions affect the whole chain of brain processing, from retina to high-level cortical networks, for perceptual and cognitive function. Here, visual adaptation levels to three different environmental lighting conditions, (1) darkness, (2) daylight, and (3) prolonged exposure to very bright light akin to sunlight, were simulated in lab to investigate the effects of light adaptation levels on classic cases of subjective contrast, assimilation, and contrast-induced relative depth in achromatic, i.e., ON-OFF pathway mediated visual configurations.

After adaptation/exposure to a given lighting condition, configurations were shown in grouped and ungrouped conditions in random order to healthy young humans in computer-controlled two-alternative forced-choice procedures that consisted of deciding, as quickly as possible, which of two background patterns in a given configuration of achromatic contrast appeared lighter, or which of two foreground patterns appeared to stand out in front, as if it were nearer to the observer.

We found a statistically significant effect of the adaptation levels on the consciously perceived subjective contrast (F(2,23) = 20.73; p < 0.001) and the relative depth (F(2,23) = 12.67; p < 0.001), a statistically significant interaction between the adaptation levels and the grouping factor (F(2,23) = 4.73; p < 0.05) on subjective contrast, and a statistically significant effect of the grouping factor on the relative depth (F(2,23) = 13.71; p < 0.01).

Visual adaption to different lighting conditions significantly alters the conscious perception of contrast and assimilation, classically linked to non-linear functional synergies between ON and OFF processing channels in the visual brain, and modulates the repeatedly demonstrated effectiveness of luminance contrast as a depth cue; the physically brighter pattern regions in the configurations are no longer consistently perceived as nearer to a conscious observer under daylight and extreme bright light adapted (rod-saturated) conditions.