Tracking the allocation of attention using human pupillary oscillations
The muscles that control the pupil are richly innervated by the autonomic nervous system. While there are central pathways that drive pupil dilations in relation to arousal, there is no anatomical evidence that cortical centers involved with visual selective attention innervate the pupil. In this st...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2013-12-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00919/full |
| _version_ | 1819208157155557376 |
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| author | Marnix eNaber Marnix eNaber George A Alvarez Ken eNakayama |
| author_facet | Marnix eNaber Marnix eNaber George A Alvarez Ken eNakayama |
| author_sort | Marnix eNaber |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The muscles that control the pupil are richly innervated by the autonomic nervous system. While there are central pathways that drive pupil dilations in relation to arousal, there is no anatomical evidence that cortical centers involved with visual selective attention innervate the pupil. In this study, we show that such connections must exist. Specifically, we demonstrate a novel Pupil Frequency Tagging (PFT) method, where oscillatory changes in stimulus brightness over time are mirrored by pupil constrictions and dilations. We find that the luminance induced pupil oscillations are enhanced when covert attention is directed to the flicker stimulus and when targets are correctly detected in an attentional tracking task. These results suggest that the amplitudes of pupil responses closely follow the allocation of focal visual attention and the encoding of stimuli. PFT provides a new opportunity to study top down visual attention itself as well as identifying the pathways and mechanisms that support this unexpected phenomenon. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-23T05:34:55Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-1288f16485e0410fa0b541b80934bd0f |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-23T05:34:55Z |
| publishDate | 2013-12-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-1288f16485e0410fa0b541b80934bd0f2022-12-21T17:58:22ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782013-12-01410.3389/fpsyg.2013.0091967052Tracking the allocation of attention using human pupillary oscillationsMarnix eNaber0Marnix eNaber1George A Alvarez2Ken eNakayama3Harvard UniversityLeiden UniversityHarvard UniversityHarvard UniversityThe muscles that control the pupil are richly innervated by the autonomic nervous system. While there are central pathways that drive pupil dilations in relation to arousal, there is no anatomical evidence that cortical centers involved with visual selective attention innervate the pupil. In this study, we show that such connections must exist. Specifically, we demonstrate a novel Pupil Frequency Tagging (PFT) method, where oscillatory changes in stimulus brightness over time are mirrored by pupil constrictions and dilations. We find that the luminance induced pupil oscillations are enhanced when covert attention is directed to the flicker stimulus and when targets are correctly detected in an attentional tracking task. These results suggest that the amplitudes of pupil responses closely follow the allocation of focal visual attention and the encoding of stimuli. PFT provides a new opportunity to study top down visual attention itself as well as identifying the pathways and mechanisms that support this unexpected phenomenon.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00919/fullAttentionAttentional BlinkPupilRSVPoscillationsFlicker |
| spellingShingle | Marnix eNaber Marnix eNaber George A Alvarez Ken eNakayama Tracking the allocation of attention using human pupillary oscillations Frontiers in Psychology Attention Attentional Blink Pupil RSVP oscillations Flicker |
| title | Tracking the allocation of attention using human pupillary oscillations |
| title_full | Tracking the allocation of attention using human pupillary oscillations |
| title_fullStr | Tracking the allocation of attention using human pupillary oscillations |
| title_full_unstemmed | Tracking the allocation of attention using human pupillary oscillations |
| title_short | Tracking the allocation of attention using human pupillary oscillations |
| title_sort | tracking the allocation of attention using human pupillary oscillations |
| topic | Attention Attentional Blink Pupil RSVP oscillations Flicker |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00919/full |
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