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Perceptual Behavior Depends Differently on Pupil-Linked Arousal and Heartbeat Dynamics-Linked Arousal in Rats
Yuxiang Liu1, Shreya Narasimhan1, Brian J Schriver1
1Department of Biomedical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, NY, United States.
Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience
|January 28, 2021
Summary
Behavior depends on arousal, measured by heart rate and pupil size. These physiological signals provide distinct, non-redundant information about arousal
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Physiology
- Behavioral Science
Background:
- Physiological signals like heart rate and pupil size are used as arousal indicators.
- The differential impact of these arousal indices on behavior is not well understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if behavior depends differently on arousal indexed by heart rate versus pupil size.
- To determine the distinct contributions of heart rate-linked and pupil-linked arousal to behavioral outcomes.
Main Methods:
- Simultaneous recording of electrocardiogram (ECG) and pupil size in rats during tactile discrimination tasks.
- Construction of a Bayesian decoder to predict behavior from physiological signals.
- Analysis of decoder performance using individual and combined physiological inputs.
Main Results:
- Both heartbeat dynamics and pupil size correlated with behavioral outcomes.
- A decoder using both heart rate and pupil size outperformed single-signal decoders.
- Heart rate and pupil size provided unique, non-redundant information for predicting behavior.
Conclusions:
- Pupil-linked and heart rate-linked arousal systems exert distinct influences on animal behavior.
- These findings highlight the complementary roles of different physiological arousal systems in shaping behavior.
