According to a new case report, a 23-year-old student in Germany has the ability to downsize and expand his students as needed, previously thought impossible.

There are two opposing small muscles in each eye that control the pupil (the dark center of the eye), allowing more light in dark environments, and limiting the amount of light when entering bright environments.

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Until recently, it was believed that this process is completely automated. Some are already known to be able to change the size of their pupils, but only indirectly.

The study’s lead author, Christoph Strauch, an assistant professor at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, says researchers already knew that thinking about the Sun constricted the pupils and led to the idea of ​​a dark spot or head. I can do some calculations.

However, no one knew that the size of the students could be changed through direct control until a psychology student in Germany approached him after attending one of Strauch’s courses.

DW, the young man identified by his initials in the case report realized that he could change the size of his pupils to about fifteen or sixteen.

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They told the researchers that constricting the pupil is like grasping or tensing something, while expanding it feels like letting go and relaxing.

At first he could change the shape of his pupil by focusing in front of or behind an object, but eventually he learned to do so without focusing. To change the size of his pupil, he only needs to focus on the eye; The environment around it does not have to be light or dark.

Strauch told Live Science that this sets DW apart from others who have demonstrated the ability to change the shape of their pupil. Even more fascinating, he could feel the muscles inside the pupils, which was thought impossible.

Researchers confirmed DW’s ability to change the height of their students through tests, but found no evidence that they did so indirectly. DW was able to dilate his pupils to 0.09 inches (2.4 millimeters) in diameter and narrow them to 0.03 inches (0.88 millimeters) in diameter without indirect methods.

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As a result, he has greatly improved his focus and vision so that he can see twice as close to his face than other objects.

Using a type of brain scan called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the researchers observed an increase in voluntary impulses, or the activity of parts of the brain related to free will.

Strauch anticipates that it may be possible for other people to learn it as well. It may be possible to develop a training method that would allow people to control the size of the pupils by trying and finding more people with this ability.