The project could have implications for the elderly and people with glaucoma, retinal degeneration or cognitive impairments. "In other words, dim lights are producing dimwits. Further, when the rodents that had been exposed to dim light were then exposed to bright light for four weeks (after a month-long break), their brain capacity - and performance on the task - recovered fully."Nunez collaborated with Lily Yan, associate professor of the a paper. (Photo: Pixabay)Did you know dim light could make you dumber?

According to a study, spending too much time in dimly lit rooms and offices may actually change the brainled vapor tight fixture manufacturers structure and hurt one's ability to remember and learn. Yan said the research team is investigating one potential site in the rodents' brains - a group of neurons in the hypothalamus that produce a peptide called orexin that's known to influence a variety of brain functions.The Michigan State University researchers studied the brains of Nile grass rats (which, like humans, are diurnal and sleep at night) after exposing them to dim and bright light for four weeks.

The rodents exposed to dim light lost about 30 percent of capacity in the hippocampus, a critical brain region for learning and memory, and performed poorly on a spatial task they had trained on previouslywithin the brain after passing through the eyes.The study is the first to show # that changes in environmental light, in a range normally experienced by humans, leads to structural changes in the brain.

"For people with eye disease who don't receive much light, can we directly manipulate this group of neurons in the brain, bypassing the eye, and provide them with the same benefits of bright light exposure?" Yan said. "Another possibility is improving the cognitive function in the aging population and those with neurological disorders."When we exposed the rats to dim light, mimicking the cloudy days of Midwestern winters or typical indoor lighting, the animals showed impairments in spatial learning," said Antonio "Tony" Nunez, psychology professor and co-investigator on the study.

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