In the arts, rain often symbolizes sadness. Especially with darkened skies. Hollywood loves to add the sight and perhaps sound of rain against a window to accentuate a sad turn of events. A lover leaves, a heart is broken, and look, it’s raining outside. The classic Zoloft advertisement campaign, too, equated darkness and rain with depression. Thanks to science, it now appears there is a real reason for this. A recent Eurekalert news release contained this statement:
Scientific findings now lend empirical support to this representation of depression that everything looks gray when you feel blue. [emphases mine]
Researchers at the University of Freiburg in Germany . . .
[F]ound dramatically lower retinal contrast gain in the depressed patients, regardless of whether or not they were receiving antidepressant medication. There was also a significant correlation between contrast gain and severity of depression, meaning those with the most severe symptoms of depression also had the lowest retinal responses. The electrophysiological signal of response was sufficiently consistent to distinguish most depressed patients from the healthy subjects. [source]
For “contrast gain,” think photo processing. Or video screen settings. High contrast gives things visual pop. Low contrast washes out boundaries between things and diminishes their distinctiveness.
No, when we are sad it doesn’t literally rain inside. Sure, sometimes tears will fall. When it rains outside, thick clouds dim the natural lighting, decreasing the visual contrast. With this new study we find that depressed individuals may have an experience akin to diminished light when you and I stand in bright sunshine. Very interesting.
Now I better understand why it rains in Hollywood so often. At least on film.
I wonder: Do individuals from high rainfall regions equally equate rain with sadness? And what of their retinal contrast gain when depressed or not: Is it similar to individuals from high-sun desert regions? I would presume so, but a cross-cultural (geographic region) replication of the study would provide better answers.
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Tags: culture, mental health
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