2018/03/14 by Felix Scholkmann, Everine van de Kraats, Roeland Van Wijk +2 · 1 voice · 1 citation
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Medicine · Neuroscience · #Biofield Effects and Biophysics #Photoreceptor and optogenetics research #bioluminescence and chemiluminescence research
paper · doi:10.19185/matters.201803000001
openalex publication_date 2018/03/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/22
Biological tissue exhibits autoluminescence, i.e. a spontaneous ultra-weak photon emission (UPE) without photoexcitation.In this study, we report UPE measurements on human hands using an electron-multiplying CCD (EMCCD) camera.The images from left and right hands (2 subjects, 10 images in total) were taken on different dates.We observed the following spatio-temporal aspects of the hand UPE images: (i) all images show clearly that human hands exhibit autoluminescence; (ii) there was large variability in the UPE intensity with respect to the factors: time (time of day, date), anatomical location on the hand, and individual subject; (iii) images taken on the same date (but at different times of day) showed a stronger similarity than images of the same subject taken on different dates; (iv) the mean UPE intensity (averaged over 2 regions of interest at the right and left dorsum of the hands) correlated with the time of measurement (lower intensity at around noon).Our study documents the feasibility of UPE imaging of hands with an EMCCD camera and shows that the spatio-temporal variability of the UPE pattern harbours information that seems to be correlated to internal and external factors.