15:00 - 16:30
Submission 353
Pupil Responses to Amodal Brightness
Posterwall-03
Presented by: Lisa Widmayer
Lisa WidmayerAlexander C. Schütz
University of Marburg, Germany
Beyond the amount of incoming light, the pupil light response (PLR) not only reflects the sensory input but rather the perceived features of the stimulus. The pupil has been shown to respond to subjective, illusory, and imaginary brightness as well as modally filled-in brightness in the blind-spot region. We tested the hypothesis that amodally completed brightness would affect the pupil size in a similar fashion. Therefore, we presented three types of stimulus configurations in a randomized order to our participants: The “amodal” configuration should be perceived as a bright figure being partially occluded by a dark fence-like occluder. The “complete” configuration displayed the same figure but un-occluded in front of the occluder. In the “striped” configuration, a striped figure, matched with the “amodal” figure for luminance, would appear as un-occluded in front of the occluder. A stronger pupil constriction to the “amodal” than to the “striped” figure, hence, would indicate that amodal brightness completion contributed to the PLR. Participants were instructed to maintain central fixation and we tracked gaze position and pupil size. As expected, the “complete” condition triggered the strongest constriction. The “amodal” condition elicited a weaker constriction than the “complete” one but a stronger constriction than the luminance matched "striped” control. This highlights another factor that influences the PLR, indicating that even amodally completed surface features are perceptually represented.