Pupillary correlates of lapses of sustained attention

The current study examined the extent to which pupillary responses (both pretrial baseline and phasic responses) would accurately track lapses of attention as predicted by theories of locus coeruleus norepinephrine (LC-NE) functioning. Participants performed a sustained attention task while pupil re...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inCognitive, affective, & behavioral neuroscience Vol. 16; no. 4; pp. 601 - 615
Main Authors Unsworth, Nash, Robison, Matthew K.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York Springer US 01.08.2016
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Adolescent
Adult
Analysis of Variance
Attention - physiology
Behavioral Science and Psychology
Cognitive Psychology
Eye Movements
Female
Functional Laterality
Humans
Male
Neurosciences
Photic Stimulation
Psychology
Pupil - physiology
Reaction Time - physiology
Young Adult
Norephinephrine
Cognitive control
Attention
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Summary:The current study examined the extent to which pupillary responses (both pretrial baseline and phasic responses) would accurately track lapses of attention as predicted by theories of locus coeruleus norepinephrine (LC-NE) functioning. Participants performed a sustained attention task while pupil responses were continuously recorded. Periodically during the task, participants were presented with thought probes to determine if they were on or off task. The results suggested the pupillary responses accurately distinguished on from off-task states. Importantly, pretrial baseline pupil responses distinguished different types of lapses of attention, with inattentive and mind-wandering states being associated with small pretrial baseline pupil diameters on average and distracted states being associated with larger pretrial baseline pupil diameters on average compared to focused states. These results support the notion that pupil diameter is sensitive to different types of lapses of attention which may be associated with different LC-NE modes.
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ISSN:1530-7026
1531-135X
DOI:10.3758/s13415-016-0417-4