Excitación melanopsinica en condiciones de iluminación natural y artificial

Resumen

Biological adaptation to sunlight evolved over millions of years. The intrusion of artificial lighting has disrupted
this relationship with the natural environment. On the other hand the discovery of the photopigment melanopsin
poses new challenges for lighting designers. We studied melanopsin excitation under natural and artificial
illumination considering aging of intraocular media. Our results showed that artificial illuminants systematically
produced lower melanopsin excitation than environmental natural daylight conditions. This reduction is small for
LED and Fluorescent illuminants when compared with natural illuminant D50, which could resemble horizon
light, but it is much more important when compared with CIE natural illuminants that can roughly reproduce a
clear sunny daylight and overcast sky conditions.