Noronha Ana Carolina, Castro Mendes Francisca, Carvalho Pedro, Fonseca Mafalda, Paciência Inês, Moreira André
Basic and Clinical Immunology Unit, Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.
EPIUnit-Institute of Public Health, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.
Porto Biomed J. 2025 Jan 28;10(1):e279. doi: 10.1097/j.pbj.0000000000000279. eCollection 2025 Jan-Feb.
Fear and horror induce autonomic protective responses, acting as "survival intelligence." Pupillometry is an innovative method that captures real-time autonomic nervous system reactions to stress.
To evaluate the feasibility of pupillometry to assess the acute response to a passive real-life stressor-viewing a truthful war scene.
Thirteen medical students (10 women) with an average age of 20.4 years were enrolled in a nonrandomized controlled crossover trial. Selected clips from two different audiovisual stimuli (M1: as a fear and horror inducer and M2: as a control) were watched for 15 minutes, separated by a washout period of 48-72 hours. The differences in pupillometry parameters between the exposure movie and the assessment time (T0 and T1 for M1 and T0 and T1 for M2) were evaluated using a Wilcoxon test. The Wilcoxon test was also used to assess the difference between M1 and M2 within each assessment time point (T0 and T1).
A significant difference in response to acute fear and horror-induced stress was observed in pupillometry parameters {baseline [6.90 (5.95; 7.40) vs. 6.60 (5.55; 7.10), = 0.030] and final pupil diameter [4.50 (3.90; 5.20) vs. 4.10 (3.50; 4.60), = 0.012]} between M1 and M2 in T1, suggesting the acute increase in sympathetic parameters. Although not significant, there was also a difference in pupillometry parameters (final pupil diameter [ = 0.060], average constriction velocity [ = 0.059]) after watching M1 compared with T0.
Our proof-of-concept study suggests that pupillometry may be used to evaluate changes in the activity of the autonomic nervous system induced by an acute passive stress stimulus.
恐惧和惊恐会引发自主保护性反应，起到“生存智慧”的作用。瞳孔测量法是一种创新方法，可捕捉自主神经系统对压力的实时反应。
评估瞳孔测量法用于评估对被动现实生活应激源（观看真实战争场景）的急性反应的可行性。
13名平均年龄为20.4岁的医学生（10名女性）参加了一项非随机对照交叉试验。观看来自两种不同视听刺激（M1：作为恐惧和惊恐诱导物；M2：作为对照）的选定片段15分钟，中间间隔48 - 72小时的洗脱期。使用Wilcoxon检验评估暴露影片与评估时间（M1的T0和T1以及M2的T0和T1）之间瞳孔测量参数的差异。Wilcoxon检验还用于评估每个评估时间点（T0和T1）内M1和M2之间的差异。
在T1时，M1和M2之间的瞳孔测量参数（基线[6.90(5.95; 7.40)对6.60(5.55; 7.10)，P = 0.030]和最终瞳孔直径[4.50(3.90; 5.20)对4.10(3.50; 4.60)，P = 0.012]）对急性恐惧和惊恐诱导的应激反应存在显著差异，表明交感神经参数急性增加。与T0相比，观看M1后瞳孔测量参数（最终瞳孔直径[P = 0.060]，平均收缩速度[P = 0.059]）也存在差异，尽管不显著。
我们的概念验证研究表明，瞳孔测量法可用于评估急性被动应激刺激引起的自主神经系统活动变化。
