Sperandio Irene, Bond Nikki, Binda Paola
The School of Psychology, University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom.
Department of Translational Research and New Technologies in Medicine and Surgery, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
Front Neurol. 2018 Dec 13;9:1070. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2018.01070. eCollection 2018.
Although retinal illumination is the main determinant of pupil size, evidence indicates that extra-retinal factors, including attention and contextual information, also modulate the pupillary response. For example, stimuli that evoke the idea of brightness (e.g., pictures of the sun) induce pupillary constriction compared to control stimuli of matched luminance. Is conscious appraisal of these stimuli necessary for the pupillary constriction to occur? Participants' pupil diameter was recorded while sun pictures and their phase-scrambled versions were shown to the left eye. A stream of Mondrian patterns was displayed to the right eye to produce continuous flash suppression, which rendered the left-eye stimuli invisible on some trials. Results revealed that when participants were aware of the sun pictures their pupils constricted relative to the control stimuli. This was not the case when the pictures were successfully suppressed from awareness, demonstrating that pupil size is highly sensitive to the contents of consciousness.
尽管视网膜光照度是瞳孔大小的主要决定因素，但有证据表明，包括注意力和情境信息在内的视网膜外因素也会调节瞳孔反应。例如，与匹配亮度的对照刺激相比，唤起亮度概念的刺激（如太阳图片）会引起瞳孔收缩。瞳孔收缩的发生是否需要对这些刺激进行有意识的评估呢？在向左眼展示太阳图片及其相位打乱版本的同时，记录参与者的瞳孔直径。向右眼显示一系列蒙德里安图案以产生持续的闪光抑制，这使得左眼刺激在某些试验中不可见。结果显示，当参与者意识到太阳图片时，他们的瞳孔相对于对照刺激会收缩。当图片成功从意识中被抑制时则并非如此，这表明瞳孔大小对意识内容高度敏感。
