Colorful glares: Effects of colors on brightness illusions measured with pupillometry

Pupillary response to representations of light in paintings

“…However, this hypothesis has been ruled out by Binda et al, (2013b) , showing that photographs of the sun cause constriction even when the observer's attention is directed to performing a different task. An explanation that still remains open after the present work is that of a protective behavior against a potentially harmful light level triggered by high-level interpretation of a very luminous object ( Binda et al, 2013b ; Laeng & Endestad, 2012 ; Naber & Nakayama, 2013 ; Suzuki et al, 2019 ). In other words, we can hypothesize that our system initiates a defense response to the powerful light induced by the sun, even if it is just depicted in a painting.…”

“…Other authors have tried to explain why showing images with a sun produces more constriction than images of the same luminance with different lighting structure, and we can reasonably presume that these explanations may hold also for the effects found with our paintings. A potential explanation is that the subjective perception of increased brightness reduces pupil size, as found with illusions by Laeng and Endestad (2012) and Suzuki et al, (2019) with psychophysical methods. Nevertheless, Binda et al, (2013b) , by using a rating method of their stimuli, did not find this correlation.…”

“…More recent studies found that the pupil response can be modulated by high-level visual processes, such as attention ( Binda & Murray 2015a ; Binda, Pereverzeva, & Murray, 2013a ; Binda, Pereverzeva, & Murray, 2014 ; Mathôt, van der Linden, Grainger, & Vitu, 2013 ; Naber, Alvarez, & Nakayama, 2013 ; Tkacz-Domb & Yeshurun, 2018 ; Unsworth, Robinson, & Miller, 2018 ), visual awareness in binocular rivalry conditions ( Einhäuser et al, 2008 ; Fahle, Stemmler, & Spang, 2011 ; Kimura, Abe & Goryo, 2014 ; Naber, Frässle, & Einhäuser, 2011 ), perception of changes in stimuli low-level features, such as color or motion ( Kohn & Clynes, 1969 ; Sahraie & Barbur, 1997 ; Ukai, 1985 ), perceptual illusions ( Laeng & Endestad, 2012 ; Suzuki, Minami, Laeng, & Nakauchi, 2019 ; Zavagno, Tommasi, & Laeng, 2017 ), visual imagery ( Laeng & Sulutvedt, 2014 ; Mathôt, Grainger, & Strijkers, 2017 ), and high-level processing of image content ( Binda & Murray, 2015b ; Binda, Pereverzeva, & Murray, 2013b ; Naber & Nakayama, 2013 ; Sperandio, Bond & Binda, 2018 ).…”

“…Later, Laeng and Sulutvedt (2014) continued the research toward an increasingly abstract level of stimuli, showing that mentally visualizing a bright scene, compared with a darker scene, produces pupillary constriction. Recently, Suzuki et al (2019) found that colorful glare illusions (especially blue), that subjectively enhance the perception of brightness, induce pupillary constriction, reflecting an adaptive response of the visual system to a probable dangerous situation of dazzling sunlight. Furthermore, Binda et al (2013b) found that pictures of the sun induce pupillary constriction compared with control stimuli of matched luminance, as photographs of the moon, showing that high-level interpretations of image content can modulate the pupil response.…”

Attractiveness in the eyes: A possibility of positive loop between transient pupil constriction and facial attraction

“…The long-lasting, sustained pupil dilation response reflecting arousal may be different from the fast, transient component which presumably reflects other cognitive states and thus affect the feeling of attractiveness. Indeed, other studies showed that pupils in general quickly constrict in responds to the mere onset of visual presentation (even when the mean luminance is equated, e.g., 27) and that this early and reflexive pupillary constriction response is modulated by various cognitive factors such as memory (5), attention (28)(29)(30)(31), and perceptual brightness when the physical luminance is kept the same (32,33).…”