Most people in industrialized countries spend a large part of their life indoors and are exposed to artificial lighting. Thus, it is crucial to investigate physiological and psychological influences of artificial lighting, particularly in the current advent of new technologies for light emitting diodes. We are interested in how ambient lighting can affect motivation and more specifically mental effort, and whether light can counteract motivational deficits caused by fatigue (mental fatigue or fatigue due to sleep restriction). We are testing impact of different lighting parameters, like spectral properties and illuminance levels. We employ methods from cognitive psychology, cardiovascular physiology, and neuroscience.

Current state

Current project

• “Influence of lighting on mental effort and on motivational deficit caused by fatigue” 2020-2024 (SNSF)

The aim of this project is to test the facilitating effects of light (spectral wavelength composition and illuminance parameters) under mental fatigue and sleep restriction conditions.

Completed projects

• “Neurovascular and cardiovascular responses to a cognitive challenge under different ambient lighting conditions” 2019-2020 (EMBO)
• “Light level and effort-related cardiovascular response” 2018-2019 (Research Fund by the University of Basel)
• “Effects of lighting on listening effort and listening fatigue” 2017-2018 (Biäsch-Stiftung)
• “Lighting and effort-related cardiovascular response” 2016-2018 (SNSF)

People

Former interns: Alessia Giezendanner, Esther Hazelhoff, Alina Burkart, Sophie Schallberger, Amelie Herweg

Collaboration

Dr. Michael Richter, Liverpool John Moores University, UK The Effort Lab

Prof. Rex A. Wright, University of North Texas, USA Wright Research Lab

Publications

Papers

Lasauskaite, R., Hazelhoff, E.M., Cajochen, C. (2018). Four minutes might not be enough for color temperature of light to affect subjective sleepiness, mental effort, and light ratings. Lighting Research & Technology. doi:10.1177/1477153518796700

Lasauskaite, R., Cajochen, C. (2018). Influence of lighting color temperature on effort-related cardiac response. Biological Psychology, 132, 64-70. doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2017.11.005

Published conference contributions

Lasauskaite, R., & Cajochen, C. (2018, September). Subjective sleepiness and waketime are related to light perception. In Journal of Sleep Research (Vol. 27).

Lasauskaite, R., Richter, M., & Cajochen, C. (2016, January). Effects of lighting color temperature on effort intensity for cognitive and listening tasks. In Neuropsychobiology (Vol. 74, No. 4, pp. 243-244).

Lasauskaite, R., Richter, M., & Cajochen, C. (2017, December). Color temperature of light and effort-related cardiac response: Effecs for cognitive and listening tasks. In Psychophysiology (Vol. 54, pp. S130-S130).