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Investigation of summation mechanisms in the pupillomotor system

  • Neurophthalmology
  • Published:
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Abstract

Background

To ascertain whether the pupillary response amplitude shows spatial summation of responses with increasing size of retinal stimulation, and to examine the pupillary responses for evidence of surround inhibition, analogous to that found in the receptive fields of the retinal ganglion cells.

Methods

By means of infrared-video-pupillography, the pupil reaction to stimuli of increasing size (1–15°) was measured in 30 normal subjects. Four different retinal locations (0°, 20° and 40° eccentricity on the upper temporal retina and 20° eccentricity on the lower nasal retina) were examined at four different stimulus luminances (17, 47, 87 and 140 cd/m2).

Results

When the average log amplitude of the pupil light reaction from the 30 subjects is plotted as a function of the log area of the stimulus, a bi-linear response is observed, which is most pronounced for the two higher luminances. The intersection points of the two linear responses are 2.01° in the fovea, 2.80° at 20° upper temporal retina, 2.85° at 20° lower nasal retina and 4.86° at 40° upper temporal retina.

Conclusions

This study suggests that pupillomotor summation areas consist of both summation and inhibitory zones. They show larger diameters than receptive fields of retinal ganglion cells and do not appear to reflect pupillary summation areas of the pretectal olivary nucleus luminance neurons.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by funds of the Marie-Curie-Training Site “Fighting Blindness” QLG5-CT-2001-60034 from the European Union and by the ”Jung Stiftung für Wissenschaft und Forschung.”

Financial interest

The authors confirm they have no financial interest in the research.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ophthalmology and Optometry, St. Ann University Eye Hospital, Pekarska, 53, 656 91 Brno, Czech Republic

    Karolína Skorkovská

  2. Centre for Ophthalmology, University of Tübingen, Schleichstr12–16, 72076, Tübingen, Germany

    Karolína Skorkovská, Helmut Wilhelm, Holger Lüdtke, Barbara Wilhelm & Anne Kurtenbach

  3. Datinf GmbH, Wilhelmstraße 42, 72074, Tübingen, Germany

    Holger Lüdtke

  4. STZ eyetrial Schleichstr12-16, 72076, Tübingen, Germany

    Barbara Wilhelm

Authors
  1. Karolína Skorkovská
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  2. Helmut Wilhelm
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  3. Holger Lüdtke
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  4. Barbara Wilhelm
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  5. Anne Kurtenbach
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Karolína Skorkovská.

Additional information

The authors confirm to have full control of all primary data and agree to allow Graefe´s Archive for Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology to review their data upon request.

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Skorkovská, K., Wilhelm, H., Lüdtke, H. et al. Investigation of summation mechanisms in the pupillomotor system. Graefes Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol 252, 1155–1160 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00417-014-2677-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00417-014-2677-4

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