Enhancing health and well-being across the lifespan using bio-informed lighting in the built environment

暴露在光线下会使我们的生物钟与外部光暗周期同步，并改变褪黑激素等激素的产生，从而对人体生理产生深远的影响。在工业化国家，人们每天90%以上的时间都在室内度过，这就提出了一个问题，即建筑环境中室内空间的设计实践如何影响光照和相关的生物后果。目前，建筑照明设计以视觉性能和可视性规范为指导；它没有考虑到光对昼夜节律系统和健康的影响。重要的是，工作场所的建筑经常被近50岁的用户所占用。年龄可以强烈地改变光的生物效应：例如，65岁老人的晶状体比20岁年轻人的晶状体透射光少40%左右。虽然这些生物因素在科学文献中是已知的，但它们并没有被纳入人类实际居住的建筑物的设计中。牛津感知实验室和Hoare Lea之间独特的跨学科合作伙伴关系将首次将最先进的昼夜节律系统生物医学知识转化为照明实践，并为现实世界职业光暴露的生物医学研究提供信息。该项目将时间生物学、计算和心理物理学技术协同起来，在系统层面量化人类行为和生理，从而对个人在整个生命周期中的照明需求进行个性化理解，并将其纳入照明设计过程。该学生将被安排到实验心理学系的牛津感知实验室工作。除了专注于光的非视觉效果的新兴领域外，牛津感知实验室的其他核心领域还包括高分辨率视网膜成像和彩色视觉。作为这项研究的一部分，学生将学习和发展时间生物学、人类视觉心理物理学、高光谱成像和渲染、高级统计学、科学软件木工、光的测量和表征，以及人类受试者研究的伦理原则，以及开放和透明的科学。这个学生将是来自各种背景的学生的理想选择，包括心理学，神经科学，时间生物学，生物医学科学，色彩科学，照明设计和照明工程，他们对光在人类中的非视觉效果感兴趣。

Exposure to light profoundly affects human physiology by synchronising our body clock to the external light-dark cycle and modifying the production of hormones such as melatonin. In industrialised countries, people spend more than 90% of their day indoors, raising the question of how the design practices of indoor spaces in the built environment affect light exposure and the associated biological consequences. At present, architectural lighting design is guided by specifications for visual performance and visibility; it does not take into account the effects of light on the circadian system and well-being.Importantly, workplace buildings are often occupied by a wide range of users spanning almost 50 years of age. Age can strongly modify the biological effects of light: For example, the lens of a 65-year old transmits around 40% less light than the lens of a 20-year old. While these biological factors are known in the scientific literature, they are not incorporated into the design of the buildings that humans actually occupy.The unique interdisciplinary partnership between the Oxford Perception Lab and Hoare Lea will, for the first time, translate state-of-the-art biomedical knowledge of the circadian system to lighting practice, and inform biomedical research about real-world occupational light exposure. The project synergises chronobiological, computational and psychophysical techniques to quantify human behaviour and physiology at the system level, to develop an individualised understanding of an individual's lighting needs across the lifespan, and factor them into the lighting design process.The student will be embedded in the Oxford Perception Lab in the Department of Experimental Psychology. In addition to the emerging area focusing on the non-visual effects of light, other core areas of Oxford Perception Lab include high-resolution retinal imaging and colour vision. As part of this studentship, the student will learn and develop skills in chronobiology, human visual psychophysics, hyperspectral imaging and rendering, advanced statistics, scientific software carpentry, measurement and characterisation of light, as well as principles of ethics in human-subjects research, and open and transparent science.This studentship will be ideal for a student from a wide variety of backgrounds, including psychology, neuroscience, chronobiology, biomedical science, colour science, lighting design, and lighting engineering, who is interested in the non-visual effects of light in humans.