“…Task-irrelevant sounds can accelerate human responses to (task-relevant) visual stimuli (Hackley et al, 2009;Hackley & Valle-Inclán, 1998;Hershenson, 1962;Jepma et al, 2009;Stahl & Rammsayer, 2005;Tona et al, 2016). Importantly, task-irrelevant sounds dilate the pupil (Cronin et al, 2023;Petersen et al, 2017;Tona et al, 2016) and drive locus coeruleus activity (Grant et al, 1988;Joshi & Gold, 2020Joshi et al, 2016). However, other brainstem nuclei also respond to auditory soundsmost strongly the inferior colliculus that is part of the auditory pathway, and whose activity is also read out by pupil size (Joshi et al, 2016).…”