Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34642335›Full record

ArticleNature communications2021

The pupil responds spontaneously to perceived numerosity.

Elisa Castaldi, Antonella Pomè, Guido Marco Cicchini, David Burr, Paola Binda

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Nature communications, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
30citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

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.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

30 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Brain Representation of Numerosity across the Senses and Presentation Formats.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025
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  3. Article
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  6. Review
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  9. Article
  10. Feature-selective adaptation of numerosity perception.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025
    Article
  11. "Groupitizing": A Visuo-Spatial and Arithmetic Phenomenon.Open mind : discoveries in cognitive science · 2025
    Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Article
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  18. Article
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Elisa CastaldiDepartment of Translational Research and New technologies in Medicine and Surgery, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
Antonella PomèDepartment of Neuroscience, Psychology, Pharmacology and Child Health, University of Florence, Florence, Italy.
Guido Marco CicchiniInstitute of Neuroscience, National Research Council, Pisa, Italy.
David BurrDepartment of Neuroscience, Psychology, Pharmacology and Child Health, University of Florence, Florence, Italy. davidcharles.burr@unifi.it.ORCID 0000-0003-1541-8832
Paola BindaDepartment of Translational Research and New technologies in Medicine and Surgery, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.ORCID 0000-0002-7200-353X

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Although luminance is the main determinant of pupil size, the amplitude of the pupillary light response is also modulated by stimulus appearance and attention. Here we ask whether perceived numerosity modulates the pupillary light response. Participants passively observed arrays of black or white dots of matched physical luminance but different physical or illusory numerosity. In half the patterns, pairs of dots were connected by lines to create dumbbell-like shapes, inducing an illusory underestimation of perceived numerosity; in the other half, connectors were either displaced or removed. Constriction to white arrays and dilation to black were stronger for patterns with higher perceived numerosity, either physical or illusory, with the strength of the pupillary light response scaling with the perceived numerosity of the arrays. Our results show that even without an explicit task, numerosity modulates a simple automatic reflex, suggesting that numerosity is a spontaneously encoded visual feature.

Indexed as

AdultFemaleHumansIllusionsLightMalePattern Recognition, VisualPhotic StimulationPupilReflex, PupillaryVision, Ocular

Identifiers

PMID34642335
PMCPMC8511033

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

None linked

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.