Abstract
The pupil dilates in response to emotion such as anger, anxiety, or fear, and constricts under fatigue or sleepiness. Such psycho-sensual pupillary responses, i.e., pupillary constriction together with oscillation (fatigue wave), have been applied in a commercial setting as an objective index of sleepiness due to fatigue. We continuously measured the pupillary response and recorded the electrocardiogram simultaneously, and demonstrated the clinical significance of the autonomic nerve system by a heart rate variability analysis and a fast Fourier transformation analysis of the pupillary oscillation. We then investigated whether the pupillary oscillation can be an index of stress in work with Visual Display Terminals (VDT) by examining the relationship between the pupillary oscillation and the General Health Questionnaire-28. We report an attempt of clinical application of the pupillary response.
