Department of Translational Research on New Technologies in Medicine and Surgery, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
Fondazione Stella Maris Mediterraneo, Potenza, Italy.
Elife. 2018 Mar 6;7:e32399. doi: 10.7554/eLife.32399.
The pupil is primarily regulated by prevailing light levels but is also modulated by perceptual and attentional factors. We measured pupil-size in typical adult humans viewing a bistable-rotating cylinder, constructed so the luminance of the front surface changes with perceived direction of rotation. In some participants, pupil diameter oscillated in phase with the ambiguous perception, more dilated when the black surface was in front. Importantly, the magnitude of oscillation predicts autistic traits of participants, assessed by the Autism-Spectrum Quotient AQ. Further experiments suggest that these results are driven by differences in perceptual styles: high AQ participants focus on the front surface of the rotating cylinder, while those with low AQ distribute attention to both surfaces in a more global, holistic style. This is the first evidence that pupillometry reliably tracks inter-individual differences in perceptual styles; it does so quickly and objectively, without interfering with spontaneous perceptual strategies.
瞳孔主要由环境光水平调节,但也受到感知和注意力因素的调制。我们在典型的成年人类中测量了瞳孔大小,他们观看一个双稳态旋转圆柱体,该圆柱体的前表面亮度随感知的旋转方向而变化。在一些参与者中,瞳孔直径与模糊的感知同步振荡,当黑色表面在前面时瞳孔直径更大。重要的是,振荡的幅度预测了参与者的自闭症特征,由自闭症谱系商数(AQ)评估。进一步的实验表明,这些结果是由感知风格的差异驱动的:高 AQ 参与者关注旋转圆柱体的前表面,而低 AQ 参与者则以更全局、整体的方式将注意力分布到两个表面。这是瞳孔测量术可靠地跟踪个体间感知风格差异的第一个证据;它快速、客观地做到了这一点,而不会干扰自发的感知策略。