Mood changes and the dark focus of accommodation.

Abstract

The consistency of dark focus of accommodation (the refractive power of the eye in total darkness) and its relationship to mood were examined. Twenty-one subjects were tested over a 2- to 3-week period using a laser optometer and several standard mood measures (including the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List). It was found that dark focus was reasonably consistent in most subjects over that period. Furthermore, correlations between dark focus and mood were related to dark focus variability; that is, higher dark focus-mood correlations and higher scores on several mood measures were most apt to be found among subjects with higher session-to-session dark focus variability. It was concluded that dark focus is a fairly stable phenomenon. It may also prove to be a promising technique for investigating mood changes, particularly for subjects whose dark focus variability is high, although more research is required.