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“Blue Sky Effect”: Contextual Influences on Pupil Size During Naturalistic Visual Search

Pupil size is influenced by cognitive and non-cognitive factors. One of the strongest modulators of pupil size is scene luminance, which complicates studies of cognitive pupillometry in environments with complex patterns of visual stimulation. To help understand how dynamic visual scene statistics i...

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Autores principales: Thurman, Steven M., Cohen Hoffing, Russell A., Madison, Anna, Ries, Anthony J., Gordon, Stephen M., Touryan, Jonathan
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8725886/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34992563
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.748539
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author Thurman, Steven M.
Cohen Hoffing, Russell A.
Madison, Anna
Ries, Anthony J.
Gordon, Stephen M.
Touryan, Jonathan
author_facet Thurman, Steven M.
Cohen Hoffing, Russell A.
Madison, Anna
Ries, Anthony J.
Gordon, Stephen M.
Touryan, Jonathan
author_sort Thurman, Steven M.
collection PubMed
description Pupil size is influenced by cognitive and non-cognitive factors. One of the strongest modulators of pupil size is scene luminance, which complicates studies of cognitive pupillometry in environments with complex patterns of visual stimulation. To help understand how dynamic visual scene statistics influence pupil size during an active visual search task in a visually rich 3D virtual environment (VE), we analyzed the correlation between pupil size and intensity changes of image pixels in the red, green, and blue (RGB) channels within a large window (~14 degrees) surrounding the gaze position over time. Overall, blue and green channels had a stronger influence on pupil size than the red channel. The correlation maps were not consistent with the hypothesis of a foveal bias for luminance, instead revealing a significant contextual effect, whereby pixels above the gaze point in the green/blue channels had a disproportionate impact on pupil size. We hypothesized this differential sensitivity of pupil responsiveness to blue light from above as a “blue sky effect,” and confirmed this finding with a follow-on experiment with a controlled laboratory task. Pupillary constrictions were significantly stronger when blue was presented above fixation (paired with luminance-matched gray on bottom) compared to below fixation. This effect was specific for the blue color channel and this stimulus orientation. These results highlight the differential sensitivity of pupillary responses to scene statistics in studies or applications that involve complex visual environments and suggest blue light as a predominant factor influencing pupil size.
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spelling pubmed-87258862022-01-05 “Blue Sky Effect”: Contextual Influences on Pupil Size During Naturalistic Visual Search Thurman, Steven M. Cohen Hoffing, Russell A. Madison, Anna Ries, Anthony J. Gordon, Stephen M. Touryan, Jonathan Front Psychol Psychology Pupil size is influenced by cognitive and non-cognitive factors. One of the strongest modulators of pupil size is scene luminance, which complicates studies of cognitive pupillometry in environments with complex patterns of visual stimulation. To help understand how dynamic visual scene statistics influence pupil size during an active visual search task in a visually rich 3D virtual environment (VE), we analyzed the correlation between pupil size and intensity changes of image pixels in the red, green, and blue (RGB) channels within a large window (~14 degrees) surrounding the gaze position over time. Overall, blue and green channels had a stronger influence on pupil size than the red channel. The correlation maps were not consistent with the hypothesis of a foveal bias for luminance, instead revealing a significant contextual effect, whereby pixels above the gaze point in the green/blue channels had a disproportionate impact on pupil size. We hypothesized this differential sensitivity of pupil responsiveness to blue light from above as a “blue sky effect,” and confirmed this finding with a follow-on experiment with a controlled laboratory task. Pupillary constrictions were significantly stronger when blue was presented above fixation (paired with luminance-matched gray on bottom) compared to below fixation. This effect was specific for the blue color channel and this stimulus orientation. These results highlight the differential sensitivity of pupillary responses to scene statistics in studies or applications that involve complex visual environments and suggest blue light as a predominant factor influencing pupil size. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-12-21 /pmc/articles/PMC8725886/ /pubmed/34992563 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.748539 Text en Copyright © 2021 Thurman, Hoffing, Madison, Ries, Gordon and Touryan. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Thurman, Steven M.
Cohen Hoffing, Russell A.
Madison, Anna
Ries, Anthony J.
Gordon, Stephen M.
Touryan, Jonathan
“Blue Sky Effect”: Contextual Influences on Pupil Size During Naturalistic Visual Search
title “Blue Sky Effect”: Contextual Influences on Pupil Size During Naturalistic Visual Search
title_full “Blue Sky Effect”: Contextual Influences on Pupil Size During Naturalistic Visual Search
title_fullStr “Blue Sky Effect”: Contextual Influences on Pupil Size During Naturalistic Visual Search
title_full_unstemmed “Blue Sky Effect”: Contextual Influences on Pupil Size During Naturalistic Visual Search
title_short “Blue Sky Effect”: Contextual Influences on Pupil Size During Naturalistic Visual Search
title_sort “blue sky effect”: contextual influences on pupil size during naturalistic visual search
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8725886/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34992563
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.748539
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