scholarly journals Pupil size, locus coeruleus, emotional intensity, and eye movements during unconstrained movie viewing

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (10) ◽  
pp. 252c
Author(s):  
Sebastiaan Mathôt ◽  
Adina Wagner ◽  
Michael Hanke
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Locus Coeruleus ◽  
Pupil Size ◽  
Emotional Intensity

scholarly journals Pupil Size Reflects Exploration and Exploitation in Visual Search (and It’s Like Object-Based Attention)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franziska Regnath ◽  
Sebastiaan Mathôt
Keyword(s):  
Visual Search ◽  
Eye Movements ◽  
Locus Coeruleus ◽  
Pupil Size ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Focused Attention ◽  
Exploration And Exploitation ◽  
Object Based ◽  
Exploration Behavior ◽  
Frequent Switching

AbstractThe adaptive gain theory (AGT) posits that activity in the locus coeruleus (LC) is linked to two behavioral modes: exploitation, characterized by focused attention on a single task; and exploration, characterized by a lack of focused attention and frequent switching between tasks. Furthermore, pupil size correlates with LC activity, such that large pupils indicate increased LC firing, and by extension also exploration behavior. Most evidence for this correlation in humans comes from complex behavior in game-like tasks. However, predictions of the AGT naturally extend to a very basic form of behavior: eye movements. To test this, we used a visual-search task. Participants searched for a target among many distractors, while we measured their pupil diameter and eye movements. The display was divided into four randomly generated regions of different colors. Although these regions were irrelevant to the task, participants were sensitive to their boundaries, and dwelled within regions for longer than expected by chance. Crucially, pupil size increased before eye movements that carried gaze from one region to another. We propose that eye movements that stay within regions (or objects) correspond to exploitation behavior, whereas eye movements that switch between regions (or objects) correspond to exploration behavior.Public Significance StatementWhen people experience increased arousal, their pupils dilate. The adaptive-gain theory proposes that pupil size reflects neural activity in the locus coeruleus (LC), which in turn is associated with two behavioral modes: a vigilant, distractible mode (“exploration”), and a calm, focused mode (“exploitation”). During exploration, pupils are larger and LC activity is higher than during exploitation. Here we show that the predictions of this theory generalize to eye movements: smaller pupils coincide with eye movements indicative of exploitation, while pupils slightly dilate just before make eye movements that are indicative of exploration.

scholarly journals Factors Influencing Saccadic Reaction Time: Effect of Task Modality, Stimulus Saliency, Spatial Congruency of Stimuli, and Pupil Size

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shimpei Yamagishi ◽  
Shigeto Furukawa
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Locus Coeruleus ◽  
Pupil Size ◽  
Visual Target ◽  
Cognitive Task ◽  
Saccadic Reaction Time ◽  
Auditory Target ◽  
Target Condition ◽  
Related Factors ◽  
Stimulus Saliency

It is often assumed that the reaction time of a saccade toward visual and/or auditory stimuli reflects the sensitivities of our oculomotor-orienting system to stimulus saliency. Endogenous factors, as well as stimulus-related factors, would also affect the saccadic reaction time (SRT). However, it was not clear how these factors interact and to what extent visual and auditory-targeting saccades are accounted for by common mechanisms. The present study examined the effect of, and the interaction between, stimulus saliency and audiovisual spatial congruency on the SRT for visual- and for auditory-target conditions. We also analyzed pre-target pupil size to examine the relationship between saccade preparation and pupil size. Pupil size is considered to reflect arousal states coupling with locus-coeruleus (LC) activity during a cognitive task. The main findings were that (1) the pattern of the examined effects on the SRT varied between visual- and auditory-auditory target conditions, (2) the effect of stimulus saliency was significant for the visual-target condition, but not significant for the auditory-target condition, (3) Pupil velocity, not absolute pupil size, was sensitive to task set (i.e., visual-targeting saccade vs. auditory-targeting saccade), and (4) there was a significant correlation between the pre-saccade absolute pupil size and the SRTs for the visual-target condition but not for the auditory-target condition. The discrepancy between target modalities for the effect of pupil velocity and between the absolute pupil size and pupil velocity for the correlation with SRT may imply that the pupil effect for the visual-target condition was caused by a modality-specific link between pupil size modulation and the SC rather than by the LC-NE (locus coeruleus-norepinephrine) system. These results support the idea that different threshold mechanisms in the SC may be involved in the initiation of saccades toward visual and auditory targets.

scholarly journals More than Meets the Eye: the Relationship between Pupil Size and Locus Coeruleus Activity

Neuron ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 89 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent D. Costa ◽  
Peter H. Rudebeck
Keyword(s):  
Locus Coeruleus ◽  
Pupil Size ◽  
The Relationship

Looking at remembering: Eye movements, pupil size, and autobiographical memory

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve M. J. Janssen ◽  
Alicia Foo ◽  
Sheena Johnson ◽  
Alfred Lim ◽  
Jason Satel
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Response Time ◽  
Autobiographical Memory ◽  
Visual Imagery ◽  
Pupil Size ◽  
Objective Measures ◽  
Eye Position ◽  
Compelling Evidence ◽  
Self Reports ◽  
The Relationship

To examine the relationship between visual imagery and autobiographical memory, eye position and pupil size were recorded while participants first searched for memories and then reconstructed the retrieved memories (Experiment 1), or only searched for memories (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, we observed that, although recollective experience was not associated with the number of fixations per minute, memories that took longer to retrieve were linked to increased pupil size. In Experiment 2, we observed that directly retrieved memories were recalled more quickly and were accompanied by smaller pupils than generatively retrieved memories. After correcting for response time, retrieval mode also produced an effect, showing that decreased pupil size is not simply due to directly retrieved memories being recalled more quickly. These findings provide compelling evidence that objective measures, such as pupil size, can be used alongside subjective measures, such as self-reports, to distinguish between directly retrieved and generatively retrieved memories.

A Working Memory Explanation for the Effects of Eye Movements in EMDR

2008 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 247-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Maxfield ◽  
William T. Melnyk ◽  
Gordon C. A. Hayman
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Eye Movements ◽  
Autobiographical Memory ◽  
Eye Movement ◽  
Preliminary Evidence ◽  
Mechanisms Of Action ◽  
Emotional Intensity ◽  
Attention Tasks ◽  
Memory Resources ◽  
Negative Memories

Research has consistently demonstrated that performance is degraded when participants engage in two simultaneous tasks that require the same working memory resources. This study tested predictions from working memory theory to investigate the effects of eye movement (EM) on the components of autobiographical memory. In two experiments, 24 and 36 participants, respectively, focused on negative memories while engaging in three dual-attention EM tasks of increasing complexity. Compared to No-EM, Slow-EM and Fast-EM produced significantly decreased ratings of image vividness, thought clarity, and emotional intensity, and the more difficult Fast-EM resulted in larger decreases than did Slow-EM. The effects on emotional intensity were not consistent, with some preliminary evidence that a focus on memory-related thought might maintain emotional intensity during simple dual-attention tasks (Slow-EM, No-EM). The findings of our experiments support a working memory explanation for the effects of EM dual-attention tasks on autobiographical memory. Implications for understanding the mechanisms of action in EMDR are discussed.

scholarly journals Pupillometry as a Glimpse into the Neurochemical Basis of Human Memory Encoding

2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 765-774 ◽  
Author(s):  
Russell Cohen Hoffing ◽  
Aaron R. Seitz
Keyword(s):  
Locus Coeruleus ◽  
Pupil Size ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Human Memory ◽  
Memory Encoding ◽  
Learning Paradigm ◽  
Surrogate Measure ◽  
Second Procedure ◽  
Task Irrelevant ◽  
The Brain

Neurochemical systems are well studied in animal learning; however, ethical issues limit methodologies to explore these systems in humans. Pupillometry provides a glimpse into the brain's neurochemical systems, where pupil dynamics in monkeys have been linked with locus coeruleus (LC) activity, which releases norepinephrine (NE) throughout the brain. Here, we use pupil dynamics as a surrogate measure of neurochemical activity to explore the hypothesis that NE is involved in modulating memory encoding. We examine this using a task-irrelevant learning paradigm in which learning is boosted for stimuli temporally paired with task targets. We show that participants better recognize images that are paired with task targets than distractors and, in correspondence, that pupil size changes more for target-paired than distractor-paired images. To further investigate the hypothesis that NE nonspecifically guides learning for stimuli that are present with its release, a second procedure was used that employed an unexpected sound to activate the LC–NE system and induce pupil-size changes; results indicated a corresponding increase in memorization of images paired with the unexpected sounds. Together, these results suggest a relationship between the LC–NE system, pupil-size changes, and human memory encoding.

scholarly journals Generalization gradients for fear and disgust in human associative learning

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinxia Wang ◽  
Xiaoying Sun ◽  
Jiachen Lu ◽  
HaoRan Dou ◽  
Yi Lei
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Anxiety Disorders ◽  
Pupil Size ◽  
Fixation Duration ◽  
Generalization Test ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Preliminary Evidence ◽  
Conditioned Stimuli ◽  
Critical Feature ◽  
Generalization Gradients

AbstractPrevious research indicates that excessive fear is a critical feature in anxiety disorders; however, recent studies suggest that disgust may also contribute to the etiology and maintenance of some anxiety disorders. It remains unclear if differences exist between these two threat-related emotions in conditioning and generalization. Evaluating different patterns of fear and disgust learning would facilitate a deeper understanding of how anxiety disorders develop. In this study, 32 college students completed threat conditioning tasks, including conditioned stimuli paired with frightening or disgusting images. Fear and disgust were divided into two randomly ordered blocks to examine differences by recording subjective US expectancy ratings and eye movements in the conditioning and generalization process. During conditioning, differing US expectancy ratings (fear vs. disgust) were found only on CS-, which may demonstrated that fear is associated with inferior discrimination learning. During the generalization test, participants exhibited greater US expectancy ratings to fear-related GS1 (generalized stimulus) and GS2 relative to disgust GS1 and GS2. Fear led to longer reaction times than disgust in both phases, and the pupil size and fixation duration for fear stimuli were larger than for disgust stimuli, suggesting that disgust generalization has a steeper gradient than fear generalization. These findings provide preliminary evidence for differences between fear- and disgust-related stimuli in conditioning and generalization, and suggest insights into treatment for anxiety and other fear- or disgust-related disorders.

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