Visual Mode Switching in Color Perception

Participants will be given experience wearing colored lenses that add a tint to the environment. Changes in visual perception and neural processing that arise as a result of this experience will be measured. These are expected as participants learn to switch to "colored lenses mode" where the effects of the lenses are discounted and colors appear more normal as soon as the lenses are put on.

Study Overview

• Status: Withdrawn
• Conditions: Adaptive Behavior; Perception of Things Changing Color
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Mode Switching Training

Detailed Description

All participants will wear tinted lenses for 1 hour at a time, 5 times per day. Perception (behavior) and neural function (with functional MRI and EEG) before and after this experience will be measured. In the neural measurements, activity will be recorded while participants view stripes of many different colors both with the lenses on and off. In the perceptual measurements, participants will adjust the color of a small patch to appear neutral, neither red nor green. Behavior will be measured in a variety of conditions to test different hypotheses about the origins of the mode-switching effects. These include: 1) surrounding the patch with different colors, 2) preceding the presentation of the patch with presentation of different colors, 3) presenting the tests in a red-illuminated room, 4) presenting the tests in a completely darkened room, and 5) using a head-mount-display (virtual reality goggles) to present simulated lenses that gradually change in strength.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Minnesota
    • Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, 55455
      • University of Minnesota

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 65 years (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Normal or corrected to normal vision by contact lenses
• No known visual disorders
• Little to no experience in tinted environments (e.g. dark rooms, swimming goggles)

Exclusion Criteria:

• Abnormal color vision

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Basic Science
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

6

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Color Contrast; Test patch is surrounded spatially by different colors	Behavioral: Mode Switching Training; Wear of colored lenses for 1 hr, 5 times per day, for 5 days
Experimental: Color Adaptation; Test patch is surrounded temporally (preceded) by different colors	Behavioral: Mode Switching Training; Wear of colored lenses for 1 hr, 5 times per day, for 5 days
Experimental: Neuroimaging; Functional MRI and Electroencephelography data are acquired for multiple test colors	Behavioral: Mode Switching Training; Wear of colored lenses for 1 hr, 5 times per day, for 5 days
Experimental: Red Room; Participants are tested in a red-illuminated room	Behavioral: Mode Switching Training; Wear of colored lenses for 1 hr, 5 times per day, for 5 days
Experimental: Dark Room; Participants are tested in a completely darkened room	Behavioral: Mode Switching Training; Wear of colored lenses for 1 hr, 5 times per day, for 5 days
Experimental: Gradual Change; Participants view a gradual change in tint, presented on a head-mounted display	Behavioral: Mode Switching Training; Wear of colored lenses for 1 hr, 5 times per day, for 5 days

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in unique yellow settings	This is a standard psychophysical measure referenced in 100s of papers. Participants adjust a patch of color until it appears neither red nor green and this color is reported in standard colorimetric coordinates (e.g. CIE).	Change will be assessed over the entire study, by comparing a pre-test the day before the intevention (which lasts 5 days) to a post-test the day after the intervention.
Change in BOLD functional MRI activity	Neural activation will be measured with functional MRI which will be used to measure BOLD activity with standard methods, and reported as percent change from rest, a standard measure, for each voxel in the brain.	Change will be assessed over the entire study, by comparing a pre-test the day before the intevention (which lasts 5 days) to a post-test the day after the intervention.
Change in EEG activity	Neural activity will be measured with electroencephelography using standard techniques and will be reported as voltage changes over time for each electrode in a standard configuration.	Change will be assessed over the entire study, by comparing a pre-test the day before the intevention (which lasts 5 days) to a post-test the day after the intervention.

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Minnesota

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Li Y, Tregillus KE, Luo Q, Engel SA. Visual mode switching learned through repeated adaptation to color. Elife. 2020 Dec 15;9:e61179. doi: 10.7554/eLife.61179.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Estimated): January 1, 2026
• Primary Completion (Estimated): February 4, 2031
• Study Completion (Estimated): February 4, 2032

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: January 20, 2023
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 18, 2023
• First Posted (Actual): March 22, 2023

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimated): January 14, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 12, 2026
• Last Verified: January 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Visual Perception; Visual Adaptation; Color Perception
• Other Study ID Numbers: STUDY00002354

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: Completely deidentified data, meta-data, stimulus presentation code, and analysis code will be shared following an NIH data sharing plan. Data will be shared using the OSF platform, as well as github for code.
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: Data will be available for at least 10 years, starting at publication date or end of the study.
• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: Publicly accessible
• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: STUDY_PROTOCOL; ANALYTIC_CODE

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No