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The effect of high altitude on human color perception

WANG Zhi-Xin, ZHANG De-Long, MA Hai-Lin^*

Plateau Brain Science Research Center, Tibet University/South China Normal University, Lhasa 850000/Guangzhou 510631, China

Abstract

Exposure to a high altitude hypoxia environment has significant negative effects on human central nervous system. Many previous studies have explored the influence of the high altitude environment on human color perception in a simulated high altitude environment or in an environment acutely exposed to high altitude, but little has been done in migrators and natives exposed to high altitude and low oxygen for a long period of time. In this study, the minimal-change method was used to examine whether the color perception of red, green, blue and yellow was affected by the high altitude in 30 plain residents, 30 Han migrators who have lived in the high altitude for 2 years, and 28 high-altitude-adapted Tibetan natives. The results showed that long-term high altitude exposure had the most significant effect on the blue and red color perception in the natives and the migrators, with the effect on the blue color being significantly greater than that on the red color. However, the effects on green color processing only happened to the natives. The results suggest that there is an internal correlation between blood supply and selectivity changes of visual color processing caused by exposure to the plateau environment.

Key words: high altitude; difference threshold; color; migrators; native

Received: 2019-04-03　　Accepted: 2019-08-15

Corresponding author: 马海林　　E-mail: 83976475@qq.com

DOI: 10.13294/j.aps.2019.0063

Citing This Article：

WANG Zhi-Xin, ZHANG De-Long, MA Hai-Lin. The effect of high altitude on human color perception. Acta Physiol Sin 2019; 71 (6): 833-838 (in Chinese with English abstract).