Internal Affective States Alter Visual Cortical Responses-Deep implications for Vision Therapy.

I posted information on the "Mood Study" as it related to vision. You can read the complete study.

I found the conclusion really interesting:

“Collectively, the present data provide evidence that internal
affective states alter visual cortical responses in a valence-
dependent manner, with positive states increasing and negative
states decreasing the scope of perceptual encoding. The origins of
these opposing valence-dependent influences may arise from
more primitive opposing action tendencies supported by subcor-
tical structures, such as the amygdala, to enhance stereotyped
reflexes (Davis and Whalen, 2001) and mesocortical prefrontal
regions that enhance novel or exploratory appetitive behavior
(Daw et al., 2006). We hypothesize that activation of neural states
originating from these systems may represent fundamental op-
posing biases on information processing ranging from thought to
perception and action.”

Davis M, Whalen PJ (2001) The amygdala: vigilance and emotion. Mol Psy-
chiatry 6:13–34.
Daw ND, O’Doherty JP, Dayan P, Seymour B, Dolan RJ (2006) Cortical
substrates for exploratory decisions in humans. Nature 441:876 – 879.

A number of questions pop into my mind when I read this:
i) Should we not pay more attention to the emotional state of the patient when taking our visual measurements during a vision examination?
ii) Would it be useful to do a campimeter functional type visual field study on all vision therapy patients?
iii) Is it possible that perceptual problems we measure in developmental vision are influenced by the emotional state of the patient? If so, wouldn't an integrated approach of using relaxation techniques combined with a psychotherapeutic analysis of the child's inner well-being be part of our program of vision therapy?