As you step outdoors into the bright sunshine, your pupils automatically contract. Scientists from the Australian Centre of Excellence in Vision Science (ACEVS) based at The Australian National University (ANU) are making use of how this ‘pupil reflex’ is connected to the brain as a potential new way of testing the severity of multiple sclerosis (MS).

Dr Eman Ali, who is based at The John Curtin School of Medical Research, and her ACEVS colleagues have used an instrument they are developing to accurately measure the pupil responses of MS patients and have found that the pupils of MS sufferers respond appreciably slower. The finding opens the door to a simple and quick way of tracking the severity of MS over time: the slower the response, the worse the MS.

Photo via Wikimedia Commons.