Effects of induced anxiety and question content on the direction and frequency of lateral eye movements

Lateral eye movements were recorded electrically as 39 right-handed adults attempted to answer 48 questions that had been rated for anxiety content, visual imagery and difficulty. Subjects were assigned randomly to either a high or low anxiety treatment group. The anxiety treatment increased ocular motility and visuospatial questioning decreased motility, but neither variable had a significant effect on the direction to which the eyes were moved. The anxiety content of questions affected neither the number nor direction of gaze shifts. The results fail to support previous claims that lateral eye movements reflect the cerebral lateralization of emotion.