Eyes or "brain power" window?

Eyes are not only the window of the soul, but also the window of "brain power"
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Seeing this conclusion, do you think the viewpoint is very novel? In fact, as early as the 1960s, psychologists clearly discovered in research that pupil size is not only related to the amount of light entering the eye, but also reflects the individual's mental process, which involves brain function
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The study established for the first time the use of pupil dilation as an indicator of arousal, mental effort, and instantaneous changes in attention
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As we all know, the pupil is the small round hole in the center of the iris in our eyes.
It is the channel through which light enters the eye
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The pupillary sphincter and dilator major control the expansion and contraction of the pupil, and control the amount of light entering the pupil
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The average diameter of a human pupil is about 4 millimeters
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The pupils of the newborn are very small and start to dilate only 3 weeks after birth
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It is larger in youth than in middle age, and then shrinks in old age
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In 2016, in a study published in "Cognitive Psychology", psychologist Jason Tsukahara from the University of Georgia Institute of Technology in the United States accidentally discovered that working memory (high-order cognition) and fluid intelligence are both related to baseline pupil size.
Only fluid intelligence is the only one that can be predicted by baseline pupil size
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However, the results of this experiment have not been replicated well in other research teams
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Over the years, Tsukahara's team has been tracking this research and repeating this experiment over and over again
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Recently, in this new study published in "Cognition", Tsukahara's team once again proved that baseline pupil size is a reliable and effective predictor of individual fluid intelligence: under appropriate lighting conditions (not black background, not too bright) , The larger the baseline pupil, the higher the fluid intelligence
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They also proposed that fluid intelligence is related to the norepinephrine system of locus coeruleus in the brain
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This view provides clues for revealing the underlying neurological mechanism of fluid intelligence
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Fluid Intelligence is a physiologically based cognitive ability, such as perception, memory, calculation speed and reasoning ability
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It is closely related to age.
After the average person is 20 years old, the development of fluid intelligence reaches its peak, and after 30 years old, it will decline with age
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In this study, the researchers carried out larger-scale experiments
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They recruited 500 participants between the ages of 18 and 35, and tested them for reasoning, attention, and memory.
At the same time, they used eye trackers to monitor the pupil size of the participants
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This device can use high-resolution cameras and computers to capture the reflected light from the pupil and cornea to obtain pupil-related data
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When the participants stared at a blank screen for 4 minutes, the researchers measured the pupil size of their resting state as a baseline value, and obtained the average pupil size, which was used to track changes in different types of tests and activities
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The distribution of the baseline pupils on the gray and white background is in the second half of the experiment.
Participants completed a series of cognitive tests designed to measure fluid intelligence, that is, the ability to reason about new problems, and working memory, that is, memory over a period of time.
Informational ability, and attention control, that is, the ability to concentrate in distractions and disturbances
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Researchers have found that pupil dilation is not only related to excitement and exhaustion, but can also be used to understand differences in individual fluid intelligence
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They found that people with larger baseline pupils have higher fluid intelligence
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Moreover, the difference in pupil size of the participants with the highest and lowest scores in the intelligence test can be observed with the naked eye
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Those with larger baseline pupils performed better on attention, memory, and reasoning tests
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This shows that there is a strong connection between the brain and the eyes
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In addition, pupil size is negatively correlated with age, with older participants having smaller pupils
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After removing the age factor, the relationship between intelligence and pupil size still exists
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However, to find the exact cause, more detailed studies of the brain are needed to find out which areas are activated
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Based on the above findings and studies linking pupil size to specific brain regions, the researchers proposed that individual differences in fluid intelligence are related to locus coeruleus norepinephrine
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Specifically, a larger baseline pupil may indicate stronger functional connectivity between the default mode and the executive attention network, which is caused by the optimal level of baseline locus coeruleus activity
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Locus coeruleus is a nerve nucleus located in the brainstem, which extends to other parts of the brain through neural connections.
Its function is related to stress response and participates in arousal and alertness
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Not only that, it also enhances the synthesis and secretion of norepinephrine, thereby enhancing the cognitive function of the prefrontal lobe, so as to better regulate the processes of perception, attention, learning and memory, and improve motivation
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A large number of documents have previously shown that the locus coeruleus norepinephrine system is essential for understanding the biological basis of higher-order cognitive abilities (such as fluid intelligence and working memory)
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In fact, the brain uses most of its energy to maintain the system, even if we do nothing at all
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The status of this organization in the brain is also evident
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Researchers believe that there is also a hypothesis that people with larger pupils in the resting state have a stronger ability to regulate the cerebral cortex, which is conducive to cognitive ability and the functional level of the brain in the resting state
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The researchers said that more research is needed to explore this possibility and determine why larger pupils are related to higher fluid intelligence and attention control
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But obviously, the mechanism is much more complicated than we know
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The link to the paper: https:// 2020 hot articles selection 1.
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