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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday February 07 2018, @12:01PM   Printer-friendly
from the a-bright-idea dept.

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

Spending too much time in dimly lit rooms and offices may actually change the brain's structure and hurt one's ability to remember and learn, indicates groundbreaking research by Michigan State University neuroscientists.

A new study reveals exposure to dim light might impact memory and learning. Researchers report rodents exposed to dim lighting lost 30 percent of hippocampal capacity and performed poorly on spatial tasks they had previously experienced.

The researchers studied the brains of Nile grass rats (which, like humans, are diurnal and sleep at night) after exposing them to dim and bright light for four weeks. The rodents exposed to dim light lost about 30 percent of capacity in the hippocampus, a critical brain region for learning and memory, and performed poorly on a spatial task they had trained on previously.

The rats exposed to bright light, on the other hand, showed significant improvement on the spatial task. Further, when the rodents that had been exposed to dim light were then exposed to bright light for four weeks (after a month-long break), their brain capacity – and performance on the task – recovered fully.

The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, is the first to show that changes in environmental light, in a range normally experienced by humans, leads to structural changes in the brain. Americans, on average, spend about 90 percent of their time indoors, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Source: http://neurosciencenews.com/dim-light-dumber-8433/


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  • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday February 07 2018, @12:43PM (2 children)

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Wednesday February 07 2018, @12:43PM (#634382)

    That's a highly plastic response, full recovery in 4 weeks.

    Now: is the dim light simply under-stimulating the retina leading to less downstream activity in the hippocampus? What if the rats were exposed to alternating dim and bright light? Any response from the SAD crowd, or are they all too depressed in the Northern Hemisphere this month?

    --
    🌻🌻 [google.com]
    • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 07 2018, @01:58PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 07 2018, @01:58PM (#634392)

      So, we know that dim light affects spatial tasks.

      What about tasks like designing a complicated information system? Aren't there some mice who are capable of designing entire planets? Maybe we should ask them if they want to help us out nail down whether this is a gross effect or a specific effect.

    • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday February 07 2018, @06:16PM

      by Freeman (732) on Wednesday February 07 2018, @06:16PM (#634472) Journal

      Now we know why The Brain was always getting his devious plans to take over the world messed up. He was stuck in a low light lab and did his planning at night.

      --
      Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
  • (Score: 4, Funny) by Rivenaleem on Wednesday February 07 2018, @01:09PM (7 children)

    by Rivenaleem (3400) on Wednesday February 07 2018, @01:09PM (#634387)

    This doesn't look good for us basement dweller types.

    • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 07 2018, @01:44PM (6 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 07 2018, @01:44PM (#634389)

      Gotta crank up monitor brightness control.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 07 2018, @02:32PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 07 2018, @02:32PM (#634399)

        it's dim -> crank up brightness -> no sleep -> get dumb anyway

        :(

      • (Score: 2) by Snospar on Wednesday February 07 2018, @02:37PM (4 children)

        by Snospar (5366) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 07 2018, @02:37PM (#634400)

        Yeah, I'm basically sitting in front of a collection of bright LED lights all day. How is that going to make me dumberer?

        --
        Huge thanks to all the Soylent volunteers without whom this community (and this post) would not be possible.
        • (Score: 5, Interesting) by requerdanos on Wednesday February 07 2018, @04:45PM (1 child)

          by requerdanos (5997) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 07 2018, @04:45PM (#634428) Journal

          sitting in front of a collection of bright LED lights all day. How is that going to make me dumberer?

          Speaking of which... We changed out all our light bulbs for LED low-energy bulbs to run lots of lights but still save on our electric bill. I know the LED bulbs can't be anywhere near the same spectrum of light provided by the Sun. So, when they are bright, do they still count as dim because of gaps in their spectrum? I wonder.

          • (Score: 2) by JNCF on Wednesday February 07 2018, @06:14PM

            by JNCF (4317) on Wednesday February 07 2018, @06:14PM (#634471) Journal

            I took a Public Administration course years ago where the professor claimed that studies have shown that blue lights increase happiness and productivity when compared with yellow lights. Despite our glowing yellow sun, the sky tends to be blue (Rayleigh scattering and all that jazz). My house is now adorned with blue LED bulbs, but I have no citations for you.

        • (Score: 3, Funny) by chromas on Wednesday February 07 2018, @05:20PM (1 child)

          by chromas (34) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 07 2018, @05:20PM (#634438) Journal

          Do you run Windows?

          • (Score: 3, Touché) by RS3 on Friday February 09 2018, @01:14AM

            by RS3 (6367) on Friday February 09 2018, @01:14AM (#635332)

            Do you run Windows?

            (sigh) No, Windows generally runs me.

  • (Score: 5, Funny) by RS3 on Wednesday February 07 2018, @01:47PM (2 children)

    by RS3 (6367) on Wednesday February 07 2018, @01:47PM (#634390)

    "Dim Wit": Now we know the root of that cliche.

    • (Score: 2) by Thexalon on Wednesday February 07 2018, @04:13PM

      by Thexalon (636) on Wednesday February 07 2018, @04:13PM (#634420)

      Also, low light would not make people bright or brilliant.

      --
      The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 07 2018, @06:03PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 07 2018, @06:03PM (#634466)

      Also "Dim Bulb".

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 07 2018, @01:57PM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 07 2018, @01:57PM (#634391)

    With LED bulbs, you can get more light out of your fixtures now. For example, a recessed R20 fixture used to use 50W incandescent bulbs and produce 500 lumens. Now you can get 10W LEDs that produce almost 1000 lumens in the same socket.

    • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday February 07 2018, @04:06PM (2 children)

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 07 2018, @04:06PM (#634419) Journal

      Lumens aren't the whole story, I don't think. What is the temperature of your light? The summary doesn't mention exactly what "bright" means. For myself, I really, really hate "warm" lights. No matter the wattage, so-called "warm" lighting looks dim yellow, sometimes even reddish. I purchase my lights based on the temperature of the light. 6000k lights look like daylight. Somehow, it doesn't quite look "natural", but it's very very close to daylight lighting. 3000k and 4000k just don't cut it for me.

      • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 07 2018, @04:58PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 07 2018, @04:58PM (#634429)

        The bulbs have a color temperature 2700K (from Cree). I prefer that color, because the higher temperatures feel too much like nasty fluorescent lighting. But for people who like high color temperatures, I hope the brighter bulbs will be available soon. I was under the impression that low color temperatures are the most challenging for LED manufacturers.

        And it sounds like brightness will still increase, given that the best you can buy is about 100 lumens/Watt, but they've reached 3x more in the lab [forbes.com].

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 07 2018, @05:54PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 07 2018, @05:54PM (#634461)

        Agreed - I changed all my house light bulbs to the "daylight" variety and what a difference it makes. Yellow light sucks.
        As far as brightness, I vary brightness as needs dictate, since my eyes get fatigued from being in front of a screen for so many hours. I also started using the "redshift" command on Linux to help reduce eyestrain.

    • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 07 2018, @05:49PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 07 2018, @05:49PM (#634456)

      Note however that LEDs might have a considerably higher apparent power. And it is the apparent power that limits what you can insert into your socket (while the real power determines your energy consumption and — hopefully — what you pay to the electricity provider). This is because the truly limiting factor is the amperage, and the apparent power is simply volt times ampere. Incandescent light bulbs have an Ohmic resistance, and therefore the apparent power equals the real power. For LEDs (actually, the electronics needed to connect them to the grid) this is not necessarily the case.

      • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 07 2018, @06:16PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 07 2018, @06:16PM (#634473)

        Not true. Often, the power factor is over 90% and I've never seen a power factor below 50%. So compare 11-20W for the LED to 50W for the incandescent.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 07 2018, @04:29PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 07 2018, @04:29PM (#634425)

    My office got pretty dim lite and me C-A-T smrt.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 07 2018, @04:34PM (7 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 07 2018, @04:34PM (#634426)

    Those guys on CSI worked in the dark all the time and they were smart AF, season after season. Gil Grissom practically LIVED in the dark and that dude was a freakin' GENIUS!

    • (Score: 5, Interesting) by requerdanos on Wednesday February 07 2018, @05:01PM (6 children)

      by requerdanos (5997) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 07 2018, @05:01PM (#634431) Journal

      Those guys on CSI worked in the dark all the time and they were smart AF, season after season. Gil Grissom practically LIVED in the dark and that dude was a freakin' GENIUS!

      Sadly, this leads actual clients to say things like "When you enlarge it just clarify it like they do on CSI." and "I'd like you to flip the picture around so we see their faces instead of their backs." And "Can you photoshop away his sweatshirt? I want to see if he has that tattoo on his arm underneath."

      Presumably, a large percentage of these people simply die because they forget to breathe (go Darwin), but the portion of them that continue to live apparently do live in darkness, watch CSI, and believe that it is a documentary.

      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by rts008 on Wednesday February 07 2018, @05:24PM

        by rts008 (3001) on Wednesday February 07 2018, @05:24PM (#634441)

        Your comment is a shining example of why a '+1 sad, but true' mod would be useful.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 07 2018, @05:30PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 07 2018, @05:30PM (#634444)

        I forgot to breathe the once. It wasn't so bad. When I woke up I found myself as a rat in a bright maze.

      • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 07 2018, @05:31PM (3 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 07 2018, @05:31PM (#634445)

        Mocking the technically illiterate is always good for a laugh, but really how can we expect people with zero tech experience to sift through what is real and what's not when they see it in TV? Computers do a lot of things people regard as near magic, so with that level of expectation I'm not surprised. Now *enhance*.

        • (Score: 2) by acid andy on Wednesday February 07 2018, @05:55PM (1 child)

          by acid andy (1683) on Wednesday February 07 2018, @05:55PM (#634462) Homepage Journal

          Can lack of tech experience really account for what was being described though? It seems to me it's more intellectual laziness. A refusal to think critically and pause to analyze a concept.

          --
          If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
          • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday February 07 2018, @06:23PM

            by Freeman (732) on Wednesday February 07 2018, @06:23PM (#634480) Journal

            With things like X-Ray, Infrared, and Lasers, I'm not so sure that we can just expect someone to "get it". For all they know the new security cameras are just better than the old ones. So, you can zoom in and extrapolate things. https://www.xkcd.com/605/ [xkcd.com]

            --
            Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
        • (Score: 3, Funny) by requerdanos on Wednesday February 07 2018, @07:54PM

          by requerdanos (5997) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 07 2018, @07:54PM (#634526) Journal

          Mocking the technically illiterate is always good for a laugh, but really how can we expect people with zero tech experience to sift through what is real and what's not when they see it in TV?

          The line is fuzzy, but there's a line. Joining the things I mentioned over on the "dumb" side of that line are also gems such as the following.

          "Demolition crew? Labor cost?? That was stupid! Why didn't you just make it disappear like David Copperfield did on TV?"

          "Food costs? Ridiculous! Why don't the restaurants just use something like a replicator? I'm not paying."

          "What do you mean you can't do it? You're the expert! Besides, I saw them do it on TV" --Worst one. Because I am the expert, *I* tell *you* whether something is possible on your budget or in your universe.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 07 2018, @05:51PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 07 2018, @05:51PM (#634459)

    What is hippocampal capacity? It sounds like a poorly defined term. But the article is paywalled so who knows?

    With no light, there would obviously be a huge drop in spatial task performance. So it's not really surprising that 20x less light had a measurable impact. The low light level of 50 lux is pretty dim, like a dim parking garage.

    As a counterpoint to the headline, I often feel that closing my eyes helps with abstract thinking.

    • (Score: 4, Funny) by RS3 on Thursday February 08 2018, @03:07AM

      by RS3 (6367) on Thursday February 08 2018, @03:07AM (#634653)

      What is hippocampal capacity?

      It's the quantity of large African mammals that can reside in an area with tents, but that's not important right now.

  • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 07 2018, @08:01PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 07 2018, @08:01PM (#634532)

    Come into the light!

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