Characteristics of the pupillary light reflex in the macaque monkey: metrics

Abstract

To investigate whether the simian light reflex is a reasonable model for the human light reflex, we elicited pupillary responses in three behaving rhesus macaques. We measured the change in pupillary area in response to brief (100 ms), intermediate (1 s), and long (3-5 s) light flashes delivered by light-emitting diodes while the monkey fixated a stationary target. Individual responses in the same monkey to either 100-ms or 1-s stimuli of the same light intensity were quite variable. Nevertheless, in response to the 100-ms stimulus, average pupillary constriction and peak constriction velocity increased and latency decreased linearly with the log of stimulus luminance. The minimum average constriction latency across monkeys for the brightest flash was 136 ms. A linear decrease of constriction latency with stimulus luminance also occurs in humans, but their latencies are approximately 70 ms longer. In addition, peak constriction velocity was highly correlated with the decrease in pupillary area. Dilation metrics were not as well related to stimulus luminance as were constriction metrics. The latency from flash offset to the onset of dilation was relatively constant, averaging approximately 480 ms. Peak dilation velocity was also correlated, but less well, with the increase in pupillary area. Constriction generally was greater and of longer duration for 1-s light pulses than for 100-ms pulses of equal luminance. The initial time courses of the responses to the two stimuli of different durations were identical until approximately 150 ms after response onset. Human pupillary responses for long and short flashes also have identical initial time courses. For very long (3-5 s) and very bright constant-luminance stimuli, the simian pupil underwent oscillations at frequencies of 0.9-1.6 Hz. Similar oscillations, called hippus, occur in the human pupillary light reflex. Like humans, the monkeys also exhibited consensual and binocular pupillary responses. Except for response latency, the pupillary responses in the two primate species are otherwise quite similar. Therefore any knowledge we gain about the neuronal substrate of the simian light reflex can be expected to have considerable relevance when extrapolated to humans.