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Pupil Dilation Dynamics Track Attention to High-Level Information

It has long been thought that the eyes index the inner workings of the mind. Consistent with this intuition, empirical research has demonstrated that pupils dilate as a consequence of attentional effort. Recently, Smallwood et al. (2011) demonstrated that pupil dilations not only provide an index of...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Kang, Olivia E., Huffer, Katherine E., Wheatley, Thalia P.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4146469/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25162597
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0102463
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author Kang, Olivia E.
Huffer, Katherine E.
Wheatley, Thalia P.
author_facet Kang, Olivia E.
Huffer, Katherine E.
Wheatley, Thalia P.
author_sort Kang, Olivia E.
collection PubMed
description It has long been thought that the eyes index the inner workings of the mind. Consistent with this intuition, empirical research has demonstrated that pupils dilate as a consequence of attentional effort. Recently, Smallwood et al. (2011) demonstrated that pupil dilations not only provide an index of overall attentional effort, but are time-locked to stimulus changes during attention (but not during mind-wandering). This finding suggests that pupil dilations afford a dynamic readout of conscious information processing. However, because stimulus onsets in their study involved shifts in luminance as well as information, they could not determine whether this coupling of stimulus and pupillary dynamics reflected attention to low-level (luminance) or high-level (information) changes. Here, we replicated the methodology and findings of Smallwood et al. (2011) while controlling for luminance changes. When presented with isoluminant digit sequences, participants' pupillary dilations were synchronized with stimulus onsets when attending, but not when mind-wandering. This replicates Smallwood et al. (2011) and clarifies their finding by demonstrating that stimulus-pupil coupling reflects online cognitive processing beyond sensory gain.
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spelling pubmed-41464692014-08-29 Pupil Dilation Dynamics Track Attention to High-Level Information Kang, Olivia E. Huffer, Katherine E. Wheatley, Thalia P. PLoS One Research Article It has long been thought that the eyes index the inner workings of the mind. Consistent with this intuition, empirical research has demonstrated that pupils dilate as a consequence of attentional effort. Recently, Smallwood et al. (2011) demonstrated that pupil dilations not only provide an index of overall attentional effort, but are time-locked to stimulus changes during attention (but not during mind-wandering). This finding suggests that pupil dilations afford a dynamic readout of conscious information processing. However, because stimulus onsets in their study involved shifts in luminance as well as information, they could not determine whether this coupling of stimulus and pupillary dynamics reflected attention to low-level (luminance) or high-level (information) changes. Here, we replicated the methodology and findings of Smallwood et al. (2011) while controlling for luminance changes. When presented with isoluminant digit sequences, participants' pupillary dilations were synchronized with stimulus onsets when attending, but not when mind-wandering. This replicates Smallwood et al. (2011) and clarifies their finding by demonstrating that stimulus-pupil coupling reflects online cognitive processing beyond sensory gain. Public Library of Science 2014-08-27 /pmc/articles/PMC4146469/ /pubmed/25162597 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0102463 Text en © 2014 Kang et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Kang, Olivia E.
Huffer, Katherine E.
Wheatley, Thalia P.
Pupil Dilation Dynamics Track Attention to High-Level Information
title Pupil Dilation Dynamics Track Attention to High-Level Information
title_full Pupil Dilation Dynamics Track Attention to High-Level Information
title_fullStr Pupil Dilation Dynamics Track Attention to High-Level Information
title_full_unstemmed Pupil Dilation Dynamics Track Attention to High-Level Information
title_short Pupil Dilation Dynamics Track Attention to High-Level Information
title_sort pupil dilation dynamics track attention to high-level information
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4146469/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25162597
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0102463
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