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Spectral quality of light modulates emotional brain responses in humans.
Open accessAbstract
Light therapy can be an effective treatment for mood disorders, suggesting that light is able to affect mood state in the long term. As a first step to understand this effect, we hypothesized that light might also acutely influence emotion and tested whether short exposures to light modulate emotional brain responses. During functional magnetic resonance imaging, 17 healthy volunteers listened to emotional and neutral vocal stimuli while being exposed to alternating 40-s periods of blue or green ambient light. Blue (relative to green) light increased responses to emotional stimuli in the voice area of the temporal cortex and in the hippocampus. During emotional processing, the functional connectivity between the voice area, the amygdala, and the hypothalamus was selectively enhanced in the context of blue illumination, which shows that responses to emotional stimulation in the hypothalamus and amygdala are influenced by both the decoding of vocal information in the voice area and the spectral quality of ambient light. These results demonstrate the acute influence of light and its spectral quality on emotional brain processing and identify a unique network merging affective and ambient light information.
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“Research has shown that blue light can regulate brain regions associated with SAD, such as the amygdala, hippocampus, and hypothalamus, promoting the activation of positive emotions and modulating the brain’s emotional responses.[13]”
From Effectiveness of visible light for seasonal affective disorder: A systematic review and network meta-analysis (2025) · cites this paper as [13]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Vandewalle, G., Schwartz, S., Grandjean, D., Wuillaume, C., Balteau, E., Degueldre, C., Schabus, M., Phillips, C., Luxen, A., Dijk, D. J., & Maquet, P.
- Affiliations
- University of Liège (BE)
- University of Geneva (CH)
- University of Surrey (GB)
- ORCID
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2010-10-25
- Volume
- 107
- Issue
- 45
- Pages
- 19549-19554
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC2984196
- OpenAlex
- W2151796987
- Cited by
- 255
- References
- 53
- Citations by year
- 2026: 21 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 33 · 2023: 23 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 23 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 20 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 20 · 2013: 14 · 2012: 11
- FWCI
- 5.82
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Surrey Research Insight Open Access (The University of Surrey) (submittedVersion)
- Open Research (University of Surrey) (submittedVersion)
- ORBi (University of Liège) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Archive ouverte UNIGE (University of Geneva) (submittedVersion)
- Archive ouverte UNIGE (University of Geneva) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Endocrine and Autonomic Systems › Circadian rhythm and melatonin
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Color perception and design
- Keywords
- light spectrum, blue light, green light, emotional processing, amygdala, hypothalamus, hippocampus, functional connectivity, mood disorders, phototherapy, emotional speech perception
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Amygdala, Brain, Emotions, Female, Humans, Hypothalamus, Light, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Phototherapy, Voice, Young Adult
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