Dr. Ludger Tebartz van Elst and his research group at the University of Freiburg (Germany) recently published results in Biological Psychiatry (July 2010) that indicated that colors really are drab when one is depressed. Using electroretinograms (basically an electrocardiogram-like image of the retina, as opposed to the heart), they examined the response of the retina to black and white checkerboards that flickered on and off. (The device includes electrode monitoring of the eyelids and ears of the subjects.)

A total of 80 subjects were studied, half manifesting depression.  The checkerboard squares were initially grey on grey and the images flickered 12 times each second.  As the test progressed, the checkerboard squares became more black and white (instead of grey and grey), eventually become starkly black and white images.  The electroretinogram manifested the retinal response.  (Increasing contrast increased the retina’s electrical response.)  The researchers  found that depressed patients manifested greatly diminished gain- regardless of whether they were  medicated or not.  (Of the depressed subjects, half were under a therapeutic regimen and half were not receiving any medication.)  Moreover, the more severe the depression, the lower the observed gain (the smaller the response to the image contrast).  That means that things looked grey, versus black and white.

This relationship between contrast perception and depression is probably related to dopamine, the neurotransmitter that is affected in depression, thereby affecting the ability of the retina to properly perceive contrast.

This may provide a tremendous boon in the treatment of depression.  Testing is now progressing to see if patients with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder manifest different test results than those with depression. Assuming that to be true, this test could provide an objective measure for the subjective state of depression, as well as the degree of severity of the malady.