title: The effects of constrained left versus right monocular viewing on the autonomic nervous system.
abstract: Asymmetrical activation of right and left hemispheres differentially influences the autonomic nervous system. Additionally, each hemisphere primarily receives retinocollicular projections from the contralateral eye. To learn if asymmetrical hemispheric activation induced by monocular viewing would influence relative pupillary size and respiratory hippus variability (RHV), a measure of parasympathetic activity, healthy participants had their left, right or neither eye patched. Pupillary sizes were then recorded with infrared pupillography. Pupillary dilation was significantly greater with left than right eye viewing. RHV, however, was not different between eye viewing conditions. These differences in pupil dilatation may have been caused by relatively greater activation of the right hemispheric-mediated sympathetic activity induced by left monocular viewing or relatively greater deactivation of the left hemispheric-mediated parasympathetic activity induced by right eye patching. The absence of an asymmetry in RHV, however, suggests that hemispheric asymmetry of sympathetic activation was primarily responsible for this ocular asymmetry of pupil dilation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of Florida, College of Medicine, Gainesville, FL, United States; Center for Neuropsychological Studies, Gainesville, FL, United States; Malcom Randall Veteran's Affairs Hospital, Gainesville, FL, United States. Electronic address: dbrandon.burtis@mail.ufl.edu.
authors.forename: D Brandon
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Burtis
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of Florida, College of Medicine, Gainesville, FL, United States; Center for Neuropsychological Studies, Gainesville, FL, United States; Malcom Randall Veteran's Affairs Hospital, Gainesville, FL, United States.
authors.forename: Kenneth M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Heilman
authors.affiliation: J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States.
authors.forename: Jue
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mo
authors.affiliation: J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States.
authors.forename: Chao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Research Triangle Institute (RTI) International, Research Triangle Park, NC, United States.
authors.forename: Gregory F
authors.initials: GF
authors.lastname: Lewis
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Medicine, Chicago, IL, United States.
authors.forename: Maria I
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Davilla
authors.affiliation: J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States.
authors.forename: Mingzhou
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Medicine, Chicago, IL, United States; Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina, School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC, United States.
authors.forename: Stephen W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Porges
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of Florida, College of Medicine, Gainesville, FL, United States; Center for Neuropsychological Studies, Gainesville, FL, United States; Malcom Randall Veteran's Affairs Hospital, Gainesville, FL, United States.
authors.forename: John B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Williamson
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001341:Autonomic Nervous System / Q000502:physiology*; D005135:Eye Protective Devices; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011680:Pupil / Q000502:physiology; D012119:Respiration; D015349:Vision, Monocular / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Autonomic nervous system; Constrained monocular viewing; Eye patching; Hippus; Laterality; Monocular occlusion; Pupillary diameter; Pupillary light reflex; Respiratory sinus arrhythmia; Sprague effect