What do our pupils reveal?

Our pupils react to our emotions and thoughts. They are a small window through which we can look inside ourselves.

There are those who say that the eyes are the mirror of the soul, is this really true? Thanks to various scientific studies, today we can affirm that Our eyes, and especially our pupils, speak about our internal state. Our pupillary reaction is a measure that can only be assessed through laboratory techniques. However, it constitutes a simple and reliable index to understand our psychological processes.

Scientific interest in the study of pupils began at the beginning of the last century. Since then, several investigations have been carried out that conclude that Pupillary activity provides valuable information on various aspects.

What do our pupils reveal?

emotional intensity

It was the psychologist Eckhard Hess who was the pioneer in considering pupillary reactivity as an indicator of emotional and cognitive processing. This author states that we can determine if a stimulus is of interest and pleasure for a person because, in its presence, their pupillary size increases. On the contrary, when faced with unpleasant stimuli, their pupils constrict.

Subsequent studies refuted this hypothesis and confirmed that pupils dilate when faced with novel and emotionally intense stimuli. Regardless of whether they have a positive or negative valence for the person.

Cognitive effort

It has been proven that, The more difficult a task is for a person, the larger their pupil diameter.. These results have been demonstrated with tasks of various kinds: multiplication, word spelling, mental calculation… In all cases, the pupils were an indicator of cognitive effort and the degree of attention and involvement that the individual was exerting.

Rejection or dislike

When we perceive something that generates rejection, the size of our pupils decreases. This was proven in a study that exposed a group of people to images of violence, injury and death. At first his pupils widened due to the novelty and intense emotional charge of the content. However, then his pupil size decreased noticeably, as if in an attempt to stop perceiving these images.

Read Also: 4 teachings of the Tao to handle difficult people

Pupils and psychological disorders

Depression

Research in the area of depression was based on the computational model of neural networks. According to this theory depressed people have been exposed to negative information for a long time. Due to this, the neural connections responsible for processing this type of stimuli have been strengthened. And, therefore, the processing of negative stimuli would occur much more quickly.

Based on this hypothesis, It is expected that depressed people will show larger pupil size when faced with negative information. How positive. And this was confirmed by a study that also found that the pupillary reaction specifically indicated the degree of emotional processing.

That is, it is those people with a greater tendency to ruminate, to think constantly and repetitively about a negative issue, who present greater pupillary reactivity. Regardless of whether or not they are going through a depressive episode. Thus, The pupils can tell us when there is a higher risk of developing depression in the future.

Anxiety

Contrary to what happens in the previous case, Anxious symptoms are associated with smaller pupil sizes in the presence of negative images. This suggests that people with a tendency to excessive worry show smaller pupil sizes as a way of avoiding anxiety. Let us remember that the pupil diameter is directly related to the degree of emotional processing carried out by the person.

Autism

Likewise, it has been seen as Autistic children showed much smaller pupils when exposed to various images. This represents the lower processing of the stimuli that these children carry out, compared to their peers.

Read Also: Where one door closes, another opens

Amnesia

Using pupils as an indicator can be very useful in recording the mental activity of people who cannot communicate normally. For example, in cases of Alzheimer’s. It has been proven, in studies with recognition tasks, that pupils dilate when familiar stimuli are presented. Additionally, this finding has been used to detect cases of memory leak simulation.

Your pupils talk about you

In view of all these findings we can affirm that Our pupils constitute a small window through which we can observe our interior. Through them we can deduce if we are surprised or shocked. We can measure our mental effort and even detect possible psychological problems. When you want to know about someone, look them in the eyes.