Effect of attentional focus levels on spontaneous eyeblink rate in horses

Cherry, Rose L.; Adair, Henry S.; Chen, Thomas; Hendrix, Diane V. H.; Ward, Daniel A.

doi:10.1111/vop.12778

Cited by 8 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 21 publications

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“…However, there are some issues associated with measuring baseline blink rate in horses, which could have confounded the results. Blink rate is in uenced by factors such as time of day (79), exercise (93), stress (63, 64) and attention (63, 93). Therefore, true baseline blink rate is di cult to de ne, particularly in a reactive prey species that is susceptible to novelty effects (94,95).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Eye understand: physiological measures as novel predictors of adaptive learning

Evans

Cameron-Whytock

Ijichi

2022

Preprint

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Reversal learning is facilitated by tonic firing of midbrain striatal dopamine and through phasic striatal dopamine release, thought to be reflected by Spontaneous Eye Blink Rate (SEBR). Arousal during learning has also been associated with performance. This study aimed to investigate whether SEBR and arousal predict learning performance during reversal learning. Twenty horses completed a reversal learning task. Performance was measured using a Reversal Learning Performance Index. SEBR was measured at rest and during learning as a proxy of tonic and phasic striatal dopamine respectively. Heart rate variability (RMSSD) and Infrared Thermography of eye temperature (IRT) were measured as indicators of arousal. SEBR did not change in response to reversal learning but RMSSD was higher (p = 0.008) and IRT decreased during trials (left eye: p = 0.002; right eye: p = 0.05). A negative binomial GLM was able to predict performance (p < 0.0005). Baseline RMSSD was associated with higher performance following an inverted U-shaped association (p = 0.04) consistent with a Yerkes-Dodson relationship. SEBR did not predict learning performance. Increased left eye temperature predicted higher performance (p = 0.0003). This is consistent with lateralised blood flow to the left brain hemisphere (responsible for learning targeted responses) and thought to be the first observation of this phenomenon during learning.

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