Department of Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
Department of Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
Trends Cogn Sci. 2020 Jun;24(6):466-480. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2020.03.005. Epub 2020 Apr 21.
Cognitively driven pupil modulations reflect certain underlying brain functions. What do these reflections tell us? Here, we review findings that have identified key roles for three neural systems: cortical modulation of the pretectal olivary nucleus (PON), which controls the pupillary light reflex; the superior colliculus (SC), which mediates orienting responses, including pupil changes to salient stimuli; and the locus coeruleus (LC)-norepinephrine (NE) neuromodulatory system, which mediates relationships between pupil-linked arousal and cognition. We discuss how these findings can inform the interpretation of pupil measurements in terms of activation of these neural systems. We also highlight caveats, open questions, and key directions for future experiments for improving these interpretations in terms of the underlying neural dynamics throughout the brain.
认知驱动的瞳孔调制反映了某些潜在的大脑功能。这些反映能告诉我们什么呢？在这里，我们回顾了一些发现，这些发现确定了三个神经系统的关键作用：皮质对视前橄榄核（PON）的调制，控制瞳孔对光反射；上丘（SC），介导定向反应，包括对显著刺激的瞳孔变化；蓝斑核（LC）-去甲肾上腺素（NE）神经调质系统，介导与与瞳孔相关的觉醒和认知之间的关系。我们讨论了这些发现如何根据这些神经系统的激活来解释瞳孔测量结果。我们还强调了注意事项、未解决的问题和未来实验的关键方向，以改善这些解释，了解整个大脑的潜在神经动力学。
