news 2017

By Ulrike Keller In TU Graz's LightLab, an interdisciplinary team from the fields of architecture, light design and psychology are conducting research on the lighting systems of the future in close collaboration with the lighting industry. Light isn't just here so we can see things. Due to scientific findings of the last ten years, we know today that light controls our internal clock and thus also our cognitive and psychological functions, such as mood, performance and concentration by means of photosensitive receptors in the eye.

Acute psychosocial stress leads to increased empathy and prosocial behavior. An international team of researchers led by Claus Lamm from the University of Vienna investigated the effects of stress on neural mechanisms and tested the relationship between empathy and prosocial behavior in a new experiment.