Pupillometric investigation into the speed‐accuracy trade‐off in a visuo‐motor aiming task

Abstract

Convergent lines of evidence suggest that fluctuations in the size of the pupil may be associated with the trade‐off between the speed (adrenergic, sympathetic) and accuracy (cholinergic, parasympathetic) of behavior across a variety of task contexts. Here, we explored whether pupil size was related to this trade‐off during a visuospatial motor aiming task. Participants were shown visual targets at random locations on a screen and were instructed and incentivized to move a computer mouse‐controlled cursor to the center of the targets, either as fast as possible, as accurately as possible, or to strike a balance between the two. Behavioral results showed that these instructions led to typical speed‐accuracy trade‐off effects on movement reaction times and hit distances to target centers. Pupillometric analyses revealed that movements were faster and less accurate when participants had relatively large baseline pupil sizes, as measured before target onset. Furthermore, trial‐evoked pupil dilation was related specifically to a bias toward speed in the trade‐off and the speed of the ballistic and error‐correction phases of the motor responses such that larger pupils predicted shorter latencies and higher movement speeds. Pupil responses were also associated with performance in a manner that may reflect the combined influence of a number of factors, including the generation of dynamic urgency and an arousal response to negative feedback. Our results generally support a role for pupil‐linked arousal in regulating the trade‐off between speed and accuracy, while also highlighting how the trial‐related pupil response can exhibit multifaceted, temporally discrete associations with behavior.

Behavioural and Neural Correlates of Social Pressure during Decision-Making of Precision Reaches

“…To assess whether this manipulation had a physiological proxy consistent with a manipulation of the participant's SP state, we quantified pupil diameter. Our analyses reported increases of pupil diameter with SP, consistently with previously reported covariates of internal drives [26][27][28][29][30] . For this analysis, we pulled together the data across both control regimes (stop-in & cross-over), z-scored each participant's pupil size recording, and averaged across two 1s motion-free intervals of interest (FIG 4A).…”

Pupillometry as an integrated readout of distinct attentional networks

“…In response to relevant events, phasic firing of the LC occurs and results in transient pupil dilations. During (tonic) periods of exploration, task disengagement and the exploration of new sources of reward is facilitated, and baseline firing of the LC and pupil size are elevated [26][27][28]. This contrast concurs with the rest-and-digest versus fight/flight function of the parasympathetic versus sympathetic components of the autonomous, PNS, respectively [2,29].…”

“…In addition to saliency (conspicuity), pupil responses thus also depend on the timing of the onset of processing of sensory events. The pupil as a tool to mark the order of processes has been demonstrated beyond sensory tasks, including the highlighting of object detection versus subsequent identification phases [92] and ballistic versus subsequent error-correction phases of motor coordination [27].…”

The additive nature of the human multisensory evoked pupil response

“…Additionally, the SC is involved in transient changes in pupil size 18 . It has been suggested that the pupil's response to sensory events plays an important role in orienting responses as it is modulated by saliency, focused spatial attention, and motor coordination [19][20][21] .…”