Alerting, orienting or executive attention networks: differential patters of pupil dilations

Abstract

Attention capacities, alerting responses, orienting to sensory stimulation, and executive monitoring of performance are considered independent yet interrelated systems. These operations play integral roles in regulating the behavior of diverse species along the evolutionary ladder. Each of the primary attention constructs—alerting, orienting, and executive monitoring—involves salient autonomic correlates as evidenced by changes in reactive pupil dilation (PD), heart rate, and skin conductance. Recent technological advances that use remote high-resolution recording may allow the discernment of temporo-spatial attributes of autonomic responses that characterize the alerting, orienting, and executive monitoring networks during free viewing, irrespective of voluntary performance. This may deepen the understanding of the roles of autonomic regulation in these mental operations and may deepen our understanding of behavioral changes in verbal as well as in non-verbal species. The aim of this study was to explore differences between psychosensory PD responses in alerting, orienting, and executive conflict monitoring tasks to generate estimates of concurrent locus coeruleus (LC) noradrenergic input trajectories in healthy human adults using the attention networks test (ANT). The analysis revealed a construct-specific pattern of pupil responses: alerting is characterized by an early component (Pa), its acceleration enables covert orienting, and executive control is evidenced by a prominent late component (Pe). PD characteristics seem to be task-sensitive, allowing exploration of mental operations irrespective of conscious voluntary responses. These data may facilitate development of studies designed to assess mental operations in diverse species using autonomic responses.

Rumination impairs the control of stimulus-induced retrieval of irrelevant information, but not attention, control, or response selection in general

“…Table 4 SDs in this study were comparable to other studies with the same sample size (Geva et al, 2013). Internal reliability of alerting, orienting, and executive control were, respectively, rSB1 = 0.209, rSB1 = 0.556, and rSB1 = 0.831.…”

Open your eyes for prediction errors

“…The locus coeruleus is mainly known for its role in norepinephrine release and the orienting response, thought to be marked by the widening of pupils and an event-related electrophysiological component called the P3 (De Taeye et al, 2014;Geva, Zivan, Warsha, & Olchik, 2013;Murphy, Robertson, Balsters, & O'Connell, 2011;Nieuwenhuis, Aston-Jones, & Cohen, 2005;Nieuwenhuis, De Geus, & Aston-Jones, 2011). This orienting response is typically elicited by infrequent and motivationally significant stimuli and serves to facilitate further behavioral adaptations (Lynn, 1966).…”

Dynamic Connectivity at Rest Predicts Attention Task Performance

“…It involves activation of the anterior cingulate cortex, and is considered to be related to dopaminergic function (Fan et al, 2003). There is likely to be a substantial interaction in neurotransmitter modulation of these attentional networks; for example, through changes in reactive pupil dilation, Geva et al (2013) show a role for the noradrenergic system in modulating all three networks. Conventional task analysis (see Results section) shows that the regions activated by this task include areas in the FPTC and DAN.…”