Abstract: Behavioral evidences indicate that fluorescent lighting among the indoor environmental variables (noise, ambient temperature, and air quality) play a critical role in facilitating or hindering our daily activities (Amor, 2019; Rashid & Zimiring, 2008). Specifically, autistic subjects become more distracted under fluorescent lighting, which generates agitation, hyperactivity, stress, and weak cognitive skills, hence causing adverse health and performance effects Gaines et al., 2014.

 

While there is a growing body of debatable environmental behavior literature relative to the impact of fluorescent lighting on cognitive, behavioral, and psychosocial outcomes, little is known about the correlation between brain neural activity and fluorescent lighting’s color impact on Autistic cognitive processes. Neuroscience precedents indicate that seeing color activates the ventral occipital cortex, including the fusiform and lingual gyri (Hsu, Sharon & Thompson-Schill, 2012; Morita, Kochiyama, Okada, Yonekura, & Sadato, 2004), but little is known about the neural activity under different lighting color spectra—Correlated Color Temperature— CCT.

 

The purpose of this funded pilot study is to explore the behavioral and neural brain wave responses of three autistic subjects when exposed to 4 Color themes (3 chromatic lighting colors--Warm White WW with a 2700 CCT, b) Cool White CW with a 4100 CCT, and c) Daylight DX with 5500 CT), and one achromatic color theme (black, white, and grey) with 3 test applications— numerical reasoning, reading comprehension, and problem-solving with emphasis on color theme (the activation of the ventral occipital cortex—area activated when seeing color, and the pre-frontal cortex—area of the brain activated under cognitive processes.

 

This pilot explorative study includes three ASD Level 1 autism spectrum disorder subjects who will be selected based on age, gender, handedness, and color blindness. Participants undergo neural and behavioral experiments including 12 conditions: 4 CCT’s (three *chromatic colors and one **achromatic) and three test applications—1) numerical reasoning, 2) reading comprehension, and 3) problem-solving using an immersive virtual environment (HTC VIVE Focus V3) and the EMOTIV EPOC+ (14-channel wireless EEG headset), whereby neural brain waves are recorded. The behavioral data is based on a ‘satisfaction’ survey that is administered right after the conclusion of the neural experiment.

 

This research aims to provide behavioral and neural benchmark data relative to lighting color temperature that facilitates or inhibits cognitive skills for autistic subjects. The preliminary observations suggest that higher-color-temperature fluorescent lighting could provide interior built environments that enhance the activation of the prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain responsible for cognitive processes; however, further large-sampling work is necessary to substantiate the preliminary findings of this research.

Cherif Amor joined Virginia Commonwealth University-Qatar in 2013 to serve as the chair of the Department of Interior Design. He formerly served consecutively as the director of the Interior and Environmental Design graduate program and chair of the Department of Design, Texas Tech University. He earned a Ph.D. in Environmental Design with a specialization in the “semantics of the built environment”, from the University of Missouri Columbia (2000). While assuming more than ten years of administrative and professional responsibilities, Cherif’s research activities evidence sustainable growth in independent and collaborative research initiatives, having partnered heavily with academic institutions and design firms that resulted in a diversity of funded research, publications, and presentations. Research interests focus on neuro-imaging and the built environment, evidence-based design, sustainability, and the interaction between culture and the built environment. Cherif serves as a reviewer of several design journals/publications. He also serves as a site visitor for the Council for Interior Design Accreditation (CIDA), and as the chair of the interior design network within the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA). Furthermore, Cherif serves as a curriculum review consultant for the Texas International Education Consortium (TIEC) and as curricula design consultant for Middle East Design Colleges. He formerly served as the Director of Education for the International Interior Design Association (IIDA), Texas/Oklahoma Chapter. During the last five years, Cherif has been the recipient and nominee of fifteen teaching, research, and service awards/recognitions.