The common cold, pattern sensitivity and contrast sensitivity

Results from two studies involving challenge with respiratory syncytial viruses showed that volunteers who developed colds were more sensitive to a visually distracting pattern presented prior to virus challenge than were volunteers who did not get a cold. Volunteers with sub-clinical infections rep...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPsychological Medicine Vol. 22; no. 2; p. 487
Main Authors Smith, A P, Tyrrell, D A, Barrow, G I, Higgins, P G, Bull, S, Trickett, S, Wilkins, A J
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published England Cambridge University Press 01.05.1992
Subjects
Adolescent
Adult
Arousal
Attention
Common Cold - microbiology
Common Cold - psychology
Coronaviridae
Female
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Pattern Recognition, Visual
Respiratory Syncytial Viruses
Rhinovirus
Sensory Thresholds
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Summary:Results from two studies involving challenge with respiratory syncytial viruses showed that volunteers who developed colds were more sensitive to a visually distracting pattern presented prior to virus challenge than were volunteers who did not get a cold. Volunteers with sub-clinical infections reported more illusions after virus challenge than they had done before, whereas uninfected volunteers and those with colds tended to report fewer illusions on the second test. These effects did not occur when volunteers were challenged with either a coronavirus or rhinovirus. Overall, the results confirm that behavioural measures may be related to susceptibility to subsequent illness, and that viral infections may influence visual perception. They also show that the effects vary according to the nature of the infecting agent, which agrees with results from studies looking at other aspects of behaviour.
ISSN:0033-2917
DOI:10.1017/S0033291700030427