The pupil near response is short lasting and intact in virtual reality head mounted displays

• DOI: 10.16910/jemr.15.3.6
• Publication Date: 2023-03-27T16:28:07Z
• Authors: Hidde Pielage; Adriana A. Zekveld; Sjors Van de Ven; Sophia E. Kramer; Marnix Naber
• Keywords: Pupillary response; Vergence (optics)

The pupil of the eye constricts when moving focus from an object further away to closer by. This is called near response, which typically occurs together with accommodation and vergence responses. When immersed in virtual reality mediated through a head-mounted display, this triad disrupted by vergence-accommodation conflict. However, it not yet clear if disruption also affects response. Two experiments were performed assess this. first experiment had participants follow target that appeared at far position then moved either (far-to-near; FN) or another (far-to-far; FF). second jumped between five positions, was repeated several distances. Experiment 1 showed greater constriction amplitude for FN trials, compared FF suggesting response intact display reality. 2 did find average dilation differed fixating targets different distances, transient does result sustained size changes.