Short-Term Monocular Deprivation Enhances Physiological Pupillary Oscillations

Short-term monocular deprivation alters visual perception in adult humans, increasing the dominance of the deprived eye, for example, as measured with binocular rivalry. This form of plasticity may depend upon the inhibition/excitation balance in the visual cortex. Recent work suggests that cortical...

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Main Authors: Paola Binda, Claudia Lunghi
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2017-01-01
Series:Neural Plasticity
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2017/6724631
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author Paola Binda
Claudia Lunghi
author_facet Paola Binda
Claudia Lunghi
author_sort Paola Binda
collection DOAJ
description Short-term monocular deprivation alters visual perception in adult humans, increasing the dominance of the deprived eye, for example, as measured with binocular rivalry. This form of plasticity may depend upon the inhibition/excitation balance in the visual cortex. Recent work suggests that cortical excitability is reliably tracked by dilations and constrictions of the pupils of the eyes. Here, we ask whether monocular deprivation produces a systematic change of pupil behavior, as measured at rest, that is independent of the change of visual perception. During periods of minimal sensory stimulation (in the dark) and task requirements (minimizing body and gaze movements), slow pupil oscillations, “hippus,” spontaneously appear. We find that hippus amplitude increases after monocular deprivation, with larger hippus changes in participants showing larger ocular dominance changes (measured by binocular rivalry). This tight correlation suggests that a single latent variable explains both the change of ocular dominance and hippus. We speculate that the neurotransmitter norepinephrine may be implicated in this phenomenon, given its important role in both plasticity and pupil control. On the practical side, our results indicate that measuring the pupil hippus (a simple and short procedure) provides a sensitive index of the change of ocular dominance induced by short-term monocular deprivation, hence a proxy for plasticity.
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spelling doaj-art-1ad1fa95f26240b0bfca4ebc712af56a2025-08-20T03:54:24ZengWileyNeural Plasticity2090-59041687-54432017-01-01201710.1155/2017/67246316724631Short-Term Monocular Deprivation Enhances Physiological Pupillary OscillationsPaola Binda0Claudia Lunghi1Department of Translational Research on New Technologies in Medicine and Surgery, University of Pisa, Pisa, ItalyDepartment of Translational Research on New Technologies in Medicine and Surgery, University of Pisa, Pisa, ItalyShort-term monocular deprivation alters visual perception in adult humans, increasing the dominance of the deprived eye, for example, as measured with binocular rivalry. This form of plasticity may depend upon the inhibition/excitation balance in the visual cortex. Recent work suggests that cortical excitability is reliably tracked by dilations and constrictions of the pupils of the eyes. Here, we ask whether monocular deprivation produces a systematic change of pupil behavior, as measured at rest, that is independent of the change of visual perception. During periods of minimal sensory stimulation (in the dark) and task requirements (minimizing body and gaze movements), slow pupil oscillations, “hippus,” spontaneously appear. We find that hippus amplitude increases after monocular deprivation, with larger hippus changes in participants showing larger ocular dominance changes (measured by binocular rivalry). This tight correlation suggests that a single latent variable explains both the change of ocular dominance and hippus. We speculate that the neurotransmitter norepinephrine may be implicated in this phenomenon, given its important role in both plasticity and pupil control. On the practical side, our results indicate that measuring the pupil hippus (a simple and short procedure) provides a sensitive index of the change of ocular dominance induced by short-term monocular deprivation, hence a proxy for plasticity.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2017/6724631
spellingShingle Paola Binda
Claudia Lunghi
Short-Term Monocular Deprivation Enhances Physiological Pupillary Oscillations
Neural Plasticity
title Short-Term Monocular Deprivation Enhances Physiological Pupillary Oscillations
title_full Short-Term Monocular Deprivation Enhances Physiological Pupillary Oscillations
title_fullStr Short-Term Monocular Deprivation Enhances Physiological Pupillary Oscillations
title_full_unstemmed Short-Term Monocular Deprivation Enhances Physiological Pupillary Oscillations
title_short Short-Term Monocular Deprivation Enhances Physiological Pupillary Oscillations
title_sort short term monocular deprivation enhances physiological pupillary oscillations
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2017/6724631
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AT claudialunghi shorttermmonoculardeprivationenhancesphysiologicalpupillaryoscillations