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Updated: Sep 28, 2025
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Assessing Pupil-linked Changes in Locus Coeruleus-mediated Arousal Elicited by Trigeminal Stimulation
Published on: November 26, 2019
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Pupillary correlates of individual differences in long-term memory
Matthew K Robison1, Jamie M Trost2, Daniel Schor2
1University of Texas at Arlington, 313 Life Science Building, 501 Nedderman Drive, Box 19528, Arlington, TX, 76019, USA. matthew.robison@uta.edu.
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
|March 31, 2022
Summary
Individual differences in long-term memory are linked to arousal regulation and attention intensity. Pupillometry revealed that better memory recall is associated with optimal arousal and focused attention, highlighting the locus coeruleus system's role.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Individual differences in long-term memory are influenced by various cognitive and physiological factors.
- Arousal and attention are critical for memory encoding and retrieval.
- Pupillometry offers a non-invasive method to assess physiological responses related to cognitive processes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between individual differences in long-term memory, arousal dysregulation, and attention intensity.
- To explore the utility of pupillometry in measuring these cognitive and physiological variables.
Main Methods:
- 106 participants completed immediate free-recall tasks with 28 lists.
- Pupil diameter was recorded using an eye-tracker during the encoding phase.
- Intraindividual variability in pre-list pupil diameter (arousal dysregulation) and evoked pupillary responses (attention intensity) were extracted.
Main Results:
- Pupillometry measures accounted for 19% of the variance in long-term memory recall.
- Attention intensity uniquely explained 5% of recall variance.
- Arousal dysregulation uniquely explained 12% of recall variance, with higher dysregulation linked to poorer recall.
Conclusions:
- Individual differences in long-term memory are significantly associated with arousal regulation and attention intensity.
- Pupillometry can reveal individual differences in memory performance linked to effort during encoding and arousal levels.
- Findings support theories on the locus coeruleus-norepinephrine system's role in optimizing cognitive functions, including memory.
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