ArticlePeerJ2019
Cortical modulation of pupillary function: systematic review.
Article in PeerJ, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 39 papers.
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Who cites it
39 citing papers in PubMed, 74 citations in OpenAlex.
- Assessment of Sport-Related Brain Injuries with Rapid Objective Perimetry.Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Dissociation in cross-feature integration between behavioral and pupil dilation responses in auditory deviant detection.iScience · 2026Article
- Investigating the test-retest reliability and behavioral correlates of pupil responses in the n-back task.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Linking reaction time variability to physiological markers of arousal across timescales.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Predictive Accuracy of Glasgow Coma Scale and Pupillary Data on Presence of Traumatic Brain Injury.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- Development of a Unified Cardiovascular-Pupillary Model for Interpreting Pupil Size Variability as an Autonomic Marker.Biomedical engineering and computational biology · 2026Article
- Beyond visual comfort: comparing pupillometry and subjective measures of cognitive strain in workplace lighting.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Quantitative automated pupillometry in pseudoexfoliation and evaluation of contributory factors.International ophthalmology · 2025Article
- Dangerous Alarming Diameter Assessment (DADA Index) in Which the Ratio of Iris Surface/Pupil Surface Size Is More Reliable than Pupil Diameter Measurement in Comatose Patients After Subarachnoid Haemorrhage: An Experimental Rabbit Model.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Look Fear in the Eyes: The Influence of Emotion Regulation on Spider Size Estimation-A Pupillometry Study.Psychophysiology · 2025Article
- Reliability and reactivity of heart rate variability and pupillometry in response to controlled autonomic perturbations in university students.Behavior research methods · 2025Article
- Prognostic value of light reflex pupillometry in Alzheimer's disease - a longitudinal cohort study.Alzheimer's research & therapy · 2025Article
- Automated pupillometry is a predictor of outcome of stroke patients: an observational, prospective, cohort study.Brain communications · 2025Article
- Associations Between Blunted Pupillary Constriction and Dilation in Individuals with Schizophrenia: Evidence of a Common Mechanism?Schizophrenia bulletin open · 2025Article
- Pupillometry as a biomarker of postural control: Deep-learning models reveal side-specific pupillary responses to increased intensity of balance tasks.Psychophysiology · 2024Article
- Response to Letter to the Editor for: "Covert Consciousness in Acute Brain Injury Revealed by Automated Pupillometry and Cognitive Paradigms".Neurocritical care · 2024Article
- Illusory light drives pupil responses in primates.Journal of vision · 2024Article
- Eyes on Memory: Pupillometry in Encoding and Retrieval.Vision (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Psychological states affecting initial pupil size changes after olfactory stimulation in healthy participants.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Brimonidine eye drops reveal diminished sympathetic pupillary tone in comatose patients with brain injury.Acta neurochirurgica · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe pupillary light reflex is the main mechanism that regulates the pupillary diameter; it is controlled by the autonomic system and mediated by subcortical pathways. In addition, cognitive and emotional processes influence pupillary function due to input from cortical innervation, but the exact circuits remain poorly understood. We performed a systematic review to evaluate the mechanisms behind pupillary changes associated with cognitive efforts and processing of emotions and to investigate the cerebral areas involved in cortical modulation of the pupillary light reflex. METHODOLOGY: We searched multiple databases until November 2018 for studies on cortical modulation of pupillary function in humans and non-human primates. Of 8,809 papers screened, 258 studies were included.
resultsMost investigators focused on pupillary dilatation and/or constriction as an index of cognitive and emotional processing, evaluating how changes in pupillary diameter reflect levels of attention and arousal. Only few tried to correlate specific cerebral areas to pupillary changes, using either cortical activation models (employing micro-stimulation of cortical structures in non-human primates) or cortical lesion models (e.g., investigating patients with stroke and damage to salient cortical and/or subcortical areas). Results suggest the involvement of several cortical regions, including the insular cortex (Brodmann areas 13 and 16), the frontal eye field (Brodmann area 8) and the prefrontal cortex (Brodmann areas 11 and 25), and of subcortical structures such as the locus coeruleus and the superior colliculus.
conclusionsPupillary dilatation occurs with many kinds of mental or emotional processes, following sympathetic activation or parasympathetic inhibition. Conversely, pupillary constriction may occur with anticipation of a bright stimulus (even in its absence) and relies on a parasympathetic activation. All these reactions are controlled by subcortical and cortical structures that are directly or indirectly connected to the brainstem pupillary innervation system.
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Registered trials
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.