Developing safety standards for strobe research

In collaboration with leading laboratories around the world, we led the development of new safety standards for strobe research. As part of this work we developed a new screening tool, the Sussex Strobe Safety Screening Questionnaire (4SQ), which is freely available for researchers studying stroboscopic stimulation. A publication describing the recommended safety procedures and validation of the questionnaire is currently in press.

As second author, I collated data from multiple experiments across laboratories, combining datasets from over 1,000 participants. These data were synthesised with evidence from industrial strobe-light use and consultation with safety and medical experts, forming the basis of the new safety recommendations.

You can read the preprint here: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.11.17.25340398 

Schwartzman DJ, Hewitt T, Schmidt TT, et al. Stroboscopic Light Stimulation Safety Within and Beyond Laboratory Settings: Observational Evidence and Practical Guidance. medRxiv (2025).