Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2008 Jul;45(4):602-7.
doi: 10.1111/j.1469-8986.2008.00654.x. Epub 2008 Feb 11.

The pupil as a measure of emotional arousal and autonomic activation

Margaret M Bradley  1 , Laura Miccoli, Miguel A Escrig, Peter J Lang
Affiliations

The pupil as a measure of emotional arousal and autonomic activation

Margaret M Bradley et al. Psychophysiology. 2008 Jul.

Abstract

Pupil diameter was monitored during picture viewing to assess effects of hedonic valence and emotional arousal on pupillary responses. Autonomic activity (heart rate and skin conductance) was concurrently measured to determine whether pupillary changes are mediated by parasympathetic or sympathetic activation. Following an initial light reflex, pupillary changes were larger when viewing emotionally arousing pictures, regardless of whether these were pleasant or unpleasant. Pupillary changes during picture viewing covaried with skin conductance change, supporting the interpretation that sympathetic nervous system activity modulates these changes in the context of affective picture viewing. Taken together, the data provide strong support for the hypothesis that the pupil's response during affective picture viewing reflects emotional arousal associated with increased sympathetic activity.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Top panel: The mean and distribution of luminance values for pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant pictures were matched. Middle panel: Pupillary response following picture onset begins with an initial light reflex (decrease in pupillary diameter) that is strongly modulated by luminance. Bottom panel: The magnitude of the initial light reflex varies with picture luminance on a picture-by-picture basis (each square is a picture).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Top panel: Pupillary response when viewing affective pictures shows greater pupillary increases following the initial light reflex for pleasant and unpleasant, compared to neutral, pictures, indicating modulation by emotional arousal. Bottom left: Skin conductance changes during picture viewing are similar to pupillary responses, showing larger increases when pleasant or unpleasant, compared to neutral, pictures are viewed. Bottom Right: Heart rate change during picture viewing shows greater cardiac deceleration when unpleasant pictures are viewed.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Changes in pupillary diameter and skin conductance covary, with the largest reactions for pleasant and unpleasant pictures rated highest in emotional arousal for both psychophysiological measures.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Aboyoun DC, Dabbs JM. The Hess pupil dilation findings: Sex or novelty? Social Behavior and Personality. 1998;26:415–420.
    1. Beatty J, Lucero-Wagoner B. The pupillary system. In: Cacioppo JT, Tassinary LG, Berntson GG, editors. Handbook of psychophysiology. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press; 2000. pp. 14–162.
    1. Berntson GG, Boysen ST, Bauer HR, Torello MS. Conspecific screams and laughter: Cardiac and behavioral reactions of infant chimpanzees. Developmental Psychobiology. 1989;22:771–787. - PubMed
    1. Bradley MM, Codispoti M, Cuthbert BN, Lang PJ. Emotion and motivation I: Defensive and appetitive reactions in picture processing. Emotion. 2001;1:276–298. - PubMed
    1. Cook EW., III . VPM reference manual. Birmingham, Alabama: Author; 2001.

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources