Does Mood and Personality Affect How We See the World? The Effect of Depression and Neuroticism on Contrast Sensitivity

Abstract

Previous research indicates that contrast sensitivity is impaired in patients with clinical depression and that depression is correlated with high neuroticism. This study investigated the effect of depression and personality types on contrast sensitivity in non-clinical participants. Contrast sensitivity thresholds were obtained for 22 participants via a 2-alternative forced choice task. A median split based on depression scores measured through the BDI-II revealed a significant difference of contrast sensitivity between participants with high and low depression scores, where participants with higher scores in the BDI-II showed higher contrast sensitivity thresholds (p=0.014). No significant difference in contrast sensitivity was found based on personality measures, despite finding a significant positive correlation between neuroticism and depression scores (p=0.0458). These results indicate that, while higher scores for depression result in higher contrast sensitivity thresholds even in non-clinical cases, this effect does not extend to personality traits.