ArticleCurrent biology : CB2018
Pupil Size Coupling to Cortical States Protects the Stability of Deep Sleep via Parasympathetic Modulation.
Article in Current biology : CB, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 88 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
88 citing papers in PubMed, 162 citations in OpenAlex.
- Article
- Article
- Noradrenergic infraslow rhythm during sleep is the critical link between heart-rate dynamics and memory consolidation.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Polarizer-assisted pupillometry through closed eyelids, overcoming pupil position dependence.Journal of biomedical optics · 2026Article
- The Pupil-Brain System at Rest: Spontaneous Pupil Fluctuations as Markers of Neuromodulatory and Network Dynamics.Psychophysiology · 2026Review
- Article
- Role of Preoptic Area γ-Aminobutyric Acid-mediated Neurons in Distinctly Regulating Sleep and Rousability during Dexmedetomidine Sedation in Mice.Anesthesiology · 2026Article
- Article
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- Heart rate and sleep history encode ultradian REM sleep timing.Current biology : CB · 2026Article
- Sleep-dependent infraslow rhythms are evolutionarily conserved across reptiles and mammals.Nature neuroscience · 2026Article
- The parafascicular nucleus of the thalamus orchestrates coordinated skeletomotor, autonomic, and aversive state transitions.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Vigilance state dissociation induced by 5-MeO-DMT in mice.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Brainwide blood volume reflects opposing neural populations.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- The central histaminergic system slows visual processing in the retina and lateral geniculate nucleus of awake mice.PLoS biology · 2025Article
- Corticotropin-releasing hormone modulates NREM sleep consolidation through the thalamic reticular nucleus.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Characterization of iGABASnFR2 forNeurophotonics · 2025Article
- Examining pupil characteristics and relative afferent pupil defect prevalence in Syrian patients.Annals of medicine and surgery (2012) · 2025Article
- Pupil size reveals arousal level fluctuations in human sleep.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Infraslow noradrenergic locus coeruleus activity fluctuations are gatekeepers of the NREM-REM sleep cycle.Nature neuroscience · 2025Article
28 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
During wakefulness, pupil diameter can reflect changes in attention, vigilance, and cortical states. How pupil size relates to cortical activity during sleep, however, remains unknown. Pupillometry during natural sleep is inherently challenging since the eyelids are usually closed. Here, we present a novel head-fixed sleep paradigm in combination with infrared back-illumination pupillometry (iBip) allowing robust tracking of pupil diameter in sleeping mice. We found that pupil size can be used as a reliable indicator of sleep states and that cortical activity becomes tightly coupled to pupil size fluctuations during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. Pharmacological blocking experiments indicate that the observed pupil size changes during sleep are mediated via the parasympathetic system. We furthermore found that constrictions of the pupil during NREM episodes might play a protective role for stability of sleep depth. These findings reveal a fundamental relationship between cortical activity and pupil size, which has so far been hidden behind closed eyelids.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.