Deep learning-based pupil model predicts time and spectral dependent light responses

Although research has made significant findings in the neurophysiological process behind the pupillary light reflex, the temporal prediction of the pupil diameter triggered by polychromatic or chromatic stimulus spectra is still not possible. State of the art pupil models rested in estimating a static diameter at the equilibrium-state for spectra along the Planckian locus. Neither the temporal receptor-weighting nor the spectral-dependent adaptation behaviour of the afferent pupil control path is mapped in such functions. Here we propose a deep learning-driven concept of a pupil model, which reconstructs the pupil’s time course either from photometric and colourimetric or receptor-based stimulus quantities. By merging feed-forward neural networks with a biomechanical differential equation, we predict the temporal pupil light response with a mean absolute error below 0.1 mm from polychromatic (2007 ± 1 K, 4983 ± 3 K, 10,138 ± 22 K) and chromatic spectra (450 nm, 530 nm, 610 nm, 660 nm) at 100.01 ± 0.25 cd/m². This non-parametric and self-learning concept could open the door to a generalized description of the pupil behaviour.