Renewed Attention on the Pupil Light Reflex

In a recent study, Ebitz and Moore described how subthreshold electrical microstimulation of the macaque frontal eye fields (FEF) modulates the pupillary light reflex. This elegant study suggests that the influence of the FEF and prefrontal cortex on attentional modulation of cortical visual processing extends to the subcortical circuit that mediates a very basic reflex, the pupillary light reflex.

[1]  R. Gregory,et al.  Pupils of a talking parrot , 1974, Nature.

[2]  J. Grainger,et al.  The Pupillary Light Response Reveals the Focus of Covert Visual Attention , 2013, PloS one.

[3]  Paola Binda,et al.  Spatial attention increases the pupillary response to light changes. , 2015, Journal of vision.

[4]  Douglas P Munoz,et al.  A circuit for pupil orienting responses: implications for cognitive modulation of pupil size , 2015, Current Opinion in Neurobiology.

[5]  George A. Alvarez,et al.  Tracking the allocation of attention using human pupillary oscillations , 2013, Front. Psychol..

[6]  D. McDougal,et al.  Autonomic control of the eye. , 2015, Comprehensive Physiology.

[7]  R. B. Ebitz,et al.  Neuronal Activity in Primate Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex Signals Task Conflict and Predicts Adjustments in Pupil-Linked Arousal , 2015, Neuron.

[8]  L. Weiskrantz,et al.  Pupil response as a predictor of blindsight in hemianopia , 2013, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[9]  Nicholas A. Steinmetz,et al.  Top-down control of visual attention , 2010, Current Opinion in Neurobiology.

[10]  P. Binda,et al.  Dissociable saccadic suppression of pupillary and perceptual responses to light. , 2016, Journal of neurophysiology.

[11]  C. Cierpka,et al.  Particle imaging techniques for volumetric three-component (3D3C) velocity measurements in microfluidics , 2011, Journal of Visualization.

[12]  Paola Binda,et al.  Attention to Bright Surfaces Enhances the Pupillary Light Reflex , 2013, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[13]  Tirin Moore,et al.  Selective Modulation of the Pupil Light Reflex by Microstimulation of Prefrontal Cortex , 2017, The Journal of Neuroscience.