Pupil dilation reflects perceptual selection and predicts subsequent stability in perceptual rivalry
Open accessAbstract
During sustained viewing of an ambiguous stimulus, an individual's perceptual experience will generally switch between the different possible alternatives rather than stay fixed on one interpretation (perceptual rivalry). Here, we measured pupil diameter while subjects viewed different ambiguous visual and auditory stimuli. For all stimuli tested, pupil diameter increased just before the reported perceptual switch and the relative amount of dilation before this switch was a significant predictor of the subsequent duration of perceptual stability. These results could not be explained by blink or eye-movement effects, the motor response or stimulus driven changes in retinal input. Because pupil dilation reflects levels of norepinephrine (NE) released from the locus coeruleus (LC), we interpret these results as suggestive that the LC-NE complex may play the same role in perceptual selection as in behavioral decision making.
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Even in stable emotional states, pupil diameter fluctuates with task effort, timing of mental decisions, and changes in perception such as binocular rivalry.
“Even in seemingly stable emotional states, pupil diameter can fluctuate with effort on a task (e.g. difficulty of performing a mathematical calculation) (Kahneman and Beatty, 1966), the timing of mental decisions (Einhauser et al., 2010), or changes in perception (e.g. with binocular rivalry) (Einhauser et al., 2008).”
From Waking state: rapid variations modulate neural and behavioral responses (2015) · cites this paper as Einhauser et al., 2008
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- Authors
- Einhäuser, W., Stout, J., Koch, C., & Carter, O.
- Affiliations
- *Division of Biology, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125;
- California Institute of Technology (US)
- Harvard University (US)
- ORCID
- Carter, Olivia
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2008-02-05
- Volume
- 105
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 1704-1709
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC2234208
- OpenAlex
- W1979364392
- Cited by
- 351
- References
- 39
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 21 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 22 · 2021: 21 · 2020: 30 · 2019: 27 · 2018: 30 · 2017: 20 · 2016: 17 · 2015: 21 · 2014: 22 · 2013: 16 · 2012: 18
- FWCI
- 7.06
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- europepmc.org
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- CaltechAUTHORS (California Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung (111447)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Multisensory perception and integration
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Keywords
- pupil dilation, perceptual rivalry, perceptual stability, perceptual selection, ambiguous stimuli, locus coeruleus, norepinephrine, perceptual switching, visual perception, auditory perception, decision-making
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Female, Humans, Locus Coeruleus, Male, Norepinephrine, Pupil, Visual Perception, Vision, Binocular
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