How pupil size and eye movements help memory guide what you see
Pupillary working memory for adaptive perception
This project looks at how small changes in your eyes and pupil help people keep visual memories and adjust what they notice.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | University of California, San Diego NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (La Jolla, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11262206 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
You'll be invited to brief lab sessions where researchers track your gaze and pupil size while you remember simple visual features like where something appeared or how bright it was. The team will use eye-tracking and behavioral tasks to see how memory signals show up in eye movements and pupil changes during delays or when the scene changes. They will compare these patterns to situations linked to attention and memory problems to learn when perception and memory fail to coordinate. The goal is to find easy-to-measure signals that might later help understand or monitor brain and psychiatric conditions.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: Ideal participants are adults able to attend in-person lab sessions and complete brief eye-tracking tasks, generally those with normal or corrected vision.
Not a fit: People seeking immediate treatment for a neurological or psychiatric disorder are unlikely to receive direct medical benefit from participating.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could lead to simple eye-based measures that help detect or track attention and memory problems.
How similar studies have performed: Previous studies have shown that gaze direction and pupil size can reflect remembered information, but translating these signals into clinical tools is still early and experimental.
Where this research is happening
La Jolla, United States
- University of California, San Diego — La Jolla, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Kiyonaga, Anastasia — University of California, San Diego
- Study coordinator: Kiyonaga, Anastasia
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.