Abstract:
Short-term monocular deprivation in normally sighted adult humans produces a transient shift of ocular dominance, boosting the deprived eye. This effect has been documented with both perceptual tests and through physiological recordings, but no previous study simultaneously measured physiological responses and the perceptual effects of deprivation. Here we propose an integrated experimental paradigm that combines binocular rivalry with pupillometry, to introduce an objective physiological index of ocular dominance plasticity, acquired concurrently with perceptual testing. Ten participants reported the perceptual dynamics of binocular rivalry, while we measured pupil diameter. Stimuli were a white and a black disk, each presented monocularly. Rivalry dynamics and pupil-size traces were compared before and after 2 h of monocular deprivation, achieved by applying a translucent patch over the dominant eye. Consistent with prior research, we observed that monocular deprivation boosts the deprived-eye signal and consequently increases ocular dominance. In line with previous studies, we also observed subtle but systematic modulations of pupil size that tracked alternations between exclusive dominance phases of the black or white disk. Following monocular deprivation, the amplitude of these pupil-size modulations increased, which is consistent with the post-deprivation boost of the deprived eye and the increase of ocular dominance. This provides evidence that deprivation impacts the effective strength of monocular visual stimuli, coherently affecting perceptual reports and the automatic and unconscious regulation of pupil diameter. Our results show that a combined paradigm of binocular rivalry and pupillometry gives new insights into the physiological mechanisms underlying deprivation effects.
摘要:
在正常视力的成年人中,短期单眼剥夺会导致眼优势的短暂转变,提升被剥夺的眼睛。这种效果已经通过知觉测试和生理记录得到了证明,但是以前的研究没有同时测量生理反应和剥夺的知觉效应。在这里,我们提出了一种将双眼竞争与瞳孔测量相结合的综合实验范式,为了介绍眼优势可塑性的客观生理指标,与感知测试同时获得。十名参与者报告了双眼竞争的感知动力学,我们测量瞳孔直径.刺激是一个白色和黑色的磁盘,每个单眼呈现。比较单眼剥夺前后2小时的竞争动力学和瞳孔大小痕迹,通过在优势眼上应用半透明贴片来实现。与先前的研究一致,我们观察到单眼剥夺增强了剥夺眼信号,因此增加了眼优势。根据以前的研究,我们还观察到瞳孔大小的微妙但系统的调制,跟踪黑色或白色圆盘的专有优势阶段之间的交替。单眼剥夺后,这些瞳孔大小调制的幅度增加,这与剥夺后眼睛的增强和眼优势的增加是一致的。这提供了证据表明剥夺会影响单眼视觉刺激的有效强度,连贯地影响感知报告和瞳孔直径的自动和无意识调节。我们的结果表明,双眼竞争和瞳孔测量的结合范例为剥夺效应的生理机制提供了新的见解。