Influence of mood on visually evoked potentials: a prospective longitudinal study.

Anecdotal observations have suggested that individual differences in mood state could be one reason for the variability of visually evoked potentials (VEP). Therefore, we designed a longitudinal study, in which VEP amplitude was measured and psychological dimensions were assessed. All subjects completed a 'mood state questionnaire' before each session. The results from the VEP measurement and from the mood questionnaire varied widely between subjects. The intraindividual reproducibility, however, was high in 15 of 20 subjects, even over 4 weeks. In some cases we found intraindividual variability of VEP amplitude to be highly correlated with some factors derived from the mood state questionnaire. An overall analysis of covariance and variance (ANCOVA) showed a significant negative correlation between VEP amplitude and the mood factor 'Tiredness' and a significant positive correlation between VEP amplitude and 'Activity'.

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