Department of Psychiatry, Social, Cognitive, and Affective Neuroscience Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA.
Neuroreport. 2022 Mar 23;33(5):236-241. doi: 10.1097/WNR.0000000000001774.
Blue light is a powerful environmental stimulus that can produce significant phase shifts in the circadian rhythm of melatonin and sleep propensity as well as acute effects on alertness of neurobehavioral performance. Here, we undertook an expansion and reanalysis of our previously published findings to examine the effect of acute blue light exposure on the strength of resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) between a previously identified region of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and 106 cortical and subcortical regions.
Twenty-nine healthy adults (16 men and 13 women; age 18-32 years) completed a psychomotor vigilance test (PVT) before and after a single 30-min exposure to either blue (λ = 469 nm; n = 17) or amber wavelength (λ = 578 nm; n = 12) light, immediately followed by an rsFC scan.
Compared with amber light, blue light exposure produced significantly greater functional connectivity between the left DLPFC seed region and 30 cortical and subcortical regions (P < 0.05; false discovery rate-corrected). Although neurobehavioral performance did not differ between light conditions, only those exposed to blue light showed a significant association between rsFC and sustained PVT performance. Better sustained PVT performance was associated with greater connectivity between the left DLPFC and regions associated with visuospatial awareness/motion detection (right temporal-occipital middle temporal gyrus) and memory (left hippocampus), as well as reduced connectivity in a circuit associated with cognitive rumination and distraction (left parahippocampal gyrus).
Findings suggest that blue-wavelength light may facilitate acute alertness and improved cognitive performance through enhanced rsFC between the left DLPFC and cortical regions associated with visuospatial awareness.
蓝光是一种强大的环境刺激物，它可以使褪黑素的昼夜节律和睡眠倾向产生显著的相位移动，并且对神经行为表现的警觉性产生急性影响。在这里，我们对以前发表的研究结果进行了扩展和重新分析，以研究急性蓝光暴露对先前确定的左侧背外侧前额叶皮层（DLPFC）区域与 106 个皮质和皮质下区域之间静息状态功能连接（rsFC）强度的影响。
29 名健康成年人（16 名男性和 13 名女性；年龄 18-32 岁）在单次 30 分钟暴露于蓝光（λ=469nm；n=17）或琥珀光（λ=578nm；n=12）后，完成了一项精神运动警觉测试（PVT），随后立即进行 rsFC 扫描。
与琥珀光相比，蓝光暴露使左侧 DLPFC 种子区域与 30 个皮质和皮质下区域之间的功能连接显著增加（P<0.05；经假发现率校正）。尽管两种光照条件下的神经行为表现没有差异，但只有暴露于蓝光的人显示出 rsFC 与持续 PVT 表现之间存在显著关联。更好的持续 PVT 表现与左侧 DLPFC 与与视觉空间意识/运动检测（右侧颞叶-枕叶中颞叶）和记忆（左侧海马体）相关的区域之间的连接增强以及与认知反刍和分心相关的回路中的连接减少有关。
研究结果表明，蓝光可能通过增强与视觉空间意识相关的左侧 DLPFC 和皮质区域之间的 rsFC，促进急性警觉和改善认知表现。
