Cardiff University | Prifysgol Caerdydd ORCA
Online Research @ Cardiff 
WelshClear Cookie - decide language by browser settings

Understanding the subtypes of visual hypersensitivity: Four coherent factors and their measurement with the Cardiff Hypersensitivity Scale (CHYPS)

Price, Alice ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8577-7294, Sumner, Petroc ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0536-0510 and Powell, Georgina ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6793-0446 2025. Understanding the subtypes of visual hypersensitivity: Four coherent factors and their measurement with the Cardiff Hypersensitivity Scale (CHYPS). Vision Research 233 , 108610. 10.1016/j.visres.2025.108610

[thumbnail of 1-s2.0-S0042698925000719-main.pdf]
Preview
PDF - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.

Download (2MB) | Preview
License URL: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
License Start date: 19 May 2025

Abstract

Subjective visual sensitivity or discomfort has been reported in many separate literatures, and includes a wide range of visual triggers (e.g., repeating patterns, bright lights, motion, flicker) across a wide range of neurological, psychiatric, mental health, and developmental conditions and areas of neurodiversity (e.g., migraine, traumatic brain injury, functional neurological disorder, PPPD, PTSD, anxiety, depression, anorexia, OCD, autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, synaesthesia). To unite this research across disciplines and to allow progress in mechanistic understanding, we aimed to provide a definitive answer to whether there are different subtypes (factors) of visual hypersensitivity. In Study 1, we generated questions from a large qualitative dataset (n = 765), existing literatures, questionnaires, and iteratively from participant feedback. We found four theoretically coherent factors replicated across five cohorts (n’s = 349, 517, 349, 417, 797 and 1817). These factors were: brightness (e.g., sunlight), repeating patterns (e.g., stripes), strobing (e.g., flashing, screen motion), and intense visual environments (e.g., supermarkets, traffic). There was also a general factor. Based on this we produced a novel 20-item questionnaire (the Cardiff Hypersensitivity Scale, CHYPS), with good reliability (α > 0.8, ω > 0.8) and convergent validity (correlations with other visual scales r > 0.6). We discuss how these factors can be related to causal theories of hypersensitivity.

Item Type: Article
Date Type: Publication
Status: Published
Schools: Schools > Psychology
Publisher: Elsevier
ISSN: 0042-6989
Date of First Compliant Deposit: 21 May 2025
Date of Acceptance: 17 April 2025
Last Modified: 28 May 2025 09:15
URI: https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/178403

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item Edit Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics