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Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0PLOS One

Binocular combination in the autonomic nervous system

  • Federico G. Segala1
  • Aurelio Bruno2
  • Joel T. Martin3
  • Anisa Y. Morsi4
  • Alex R. Wade
  • Daniel H. Baker
4 affiliations
  1. 1Department of Psychology, University of York, York, United Kingdom
  2. 2School of Psychology and Vision Sciences, University of Leicester, Leicester, United Kingdom
  3. 3School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
  4. 4York Biomedical Research Institute, University of York, York, United Kingdom
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Abstract

Pupil diameters are regulated by the autonomic nervous system, which combines light signals across the eyes independently of the visual cortex. Distinct classes of retinal photoreceptor are involved in this process, with cones and rods driving the initial constriction and intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells maintaining diameter over prolonged time periods. We investigated binocular combination by targeting different photoreceptor pathways using a novel binocular multiprimary system to modulate the input spectra via silent substitution. At the first harmonic of the modulation frequency, luminance and S-cone responses showed strong binocular facilitation, and weak interocular suppression. Melanopsin responses were invariant to the number of eyes stimulated. The L-M pathway involved binocular inhibition, whereby responses to binocular stimulation were weaker than for monocular stimulation. The second harmonic involved strong interocular suppression in all pathways, but with some evidence of binocular facilitation. Our results are consistent with a computational model of binocular signal combination (implemented in a Bayesian hierarchical framework), in which the weight of interocular suppression differs across pathways. We also find pathway differences in response phase, consistent with different lag times for phototransduction. These results provide evidence that binocular interactions in the pupillary pathway differ across photoreceptor-directed modulations and across harmonic components of the response.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{segala2026binocular,
  title = {{Binocular combination in the autonomic nervous system}},
  author = {Federico G. Segala and Aurelio Bruno and Joel T. Martin and Anisa Y. Morsi and Alex R. Wade and Daniel H. Baker},
  journal = {PLOS One},
  year = {2026},
  month = sep,
  doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0356765},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0356765},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Binocular combination in the autonomic nervous system
AU  - Federico G. Segala
AU  - Aurelio Bruno
AU  - Joel T. Martin
AU  - Anisa Y. Morsi
AU  - Alex R. Wade
AU  - Daniel H. Baker
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/01
JO  - PLOS One
DO  - 10.1371/journal.pone.0356765
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0356765
AB  - Pupil diameters are regulated by the autonomic nervous system, which combines light signals across the eyes independently of the visual cortex. Distinct classes of retinal photoreceptor are involved in this process, with cones and rods driving the initial constriction and intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells maintaining diameter over prolonged time periods. We investigated binocular combination by targeting different photoreceptor pathways using a novel binocular multiprimary system to modulate the input spectra via silent substitution. At the first harmonic of the modulation frequency, luminance and S-cone responses showed strong binocular facilitation, and weak interocular suppression. Melanopsin responses were invariant to the number of eyes stimulated. The L-M pathway involved binocular inhibition, whereby responses to binocular stimulation were weaker than for monocular stimulation. The second harmonic involved strong interocular suppression in all pathways, but with some evidence of binocular facilitation. Our results are consistent with a computational model of binocular signal combination (implemented in a Bayesian hierarchical framework), in which the weight of interocular suppression differs across pathways. We also find pathway differences in response phase, consistent with different lag times for phototransduction. These results provide evidence that binocular interactions in the pupillary pathway differ across photoreceptor-directed modulations and across harmonic components of the response.
SN  - 1932-6203
ER  -