The eyes have it: The pupillary light response as a physiological index of aphantasia, sensory and phenomenological imagery strength

Abstract

The pupillary light response is an important automatic physiological response that optimises light reaching the retina. Recent work has shown that the pupil also adjusts in response to illusory brightness and a range of cognitive functions, however, it remains unclear what exactly drives these endogenous changes. Here we show that the imagery pupillary light response correlates with objective measures of sensory imagery strength. Further, the trial-by-trial phenomenological vividness of visual imagery is tracked by the imagery pupillary light response. We also demonstrated that there was no evidence for an imagery pupillary light response in a group of individuals without visual imagery (aphantasia), however, they did show perceptual pupil light responses and pupil dilation with larger cognitive load. Our results provide evidence that the pupillary light response indexes the sensory strength of visual imagery and also provides the first physiological validation of aphantasia.