Pupillary Dilations of Mice Performing a Vibrotactile Discrimination Task Reflect Task Engagement and Response Confidence

Abstract

This confidence coding is overlaid within a more pronounced pupil dilation that reflects post-decision components that are related to the response itself but not to the decision. We also provide evidence as to how different behavioral states, imposed by task demands, modulate what the pupil is reflecting, presumably showing what the underlying cognitive network is coding for.

Pupil Reactions to Tactile Stimulation: A Systematic Review

“…Each paper was indexed in an average of 3.11 of the included databases (SD = 1.45). Science Citation Index Expanded from Web of Science was the database with more papers indexed in; the only paper that was not indexed by them was the one from Ganea et al ( 2020 ).…”

“…As Table 2 and Figure 3 show, the nine studies were conducted between 1996 and 2020. Three used human subjects (two with adults and one with adolescents) (Van Hooijdonk et al, 2019 ; Bertheaux et al, 2020 ; Mückschel et al, 2020 ), one wild mice (Lee and Margolis, 2016 ), two with C57BL6J mice (Ganea et al, 2020 ; Lee et al, 2020 ), two albino rats (Schriver et al, 2018 , 2020 ), and one juvenile male Japanese monkeys ( Macaca fuscata ) (Iriki et al, 1996 ). Four studies used go/no-go tasks (Lee and Margolis, 2016 ; Schriver et al, 2018 , 2020 ; Mückschel et al, 2020 ), one a vibration detection task (Lee et al, 2020 ), one a two-alternative forced choice (2AFC) task (Ganea et al, 2020 ), one used a passive task (Iriki et al, 1996 ), and two discrimination of affective touch tasks (Van Hooijdonk et al, 2019 ; Bertheaux et al, 2020 ).…”

“…Iriki et al ( 1996 ) did not report the equipment other than saying it was a motor-only shot (MOS) camera. The reported equipment were a 10-Hz in-house system (Schriver et al, 2018 , 2020 ), 30-Hz EyeTribe tracker (Van Hooijdonk et al, 2019 ), Point Gray Chameleon3 camera (Ganea et al, 2020 ), DMK22BUC03 (Lee et al, 2020 ), 50-Hz Allied Vision Technologies Pike F-032 camera (Lee and Margolis, 2016 ), 60-Hz ISCAN-ETL-100H (Bertheaux et al, 2020 ), and 500-Hz RED 500 (Mückschel et al, 2020 ). All studies had controlled luminance and either excluded the trials where there were blinks or interpolated the data.…”

“…Tactile stimuli can be delivered manually (Van Hooijdonk et al, 2019 ) or in an automated manner. The most common delivery materials are brushes for affective touch (Loken et al, 2011 ; Croy et al, 2014 ; Sailer et al, 2016 ; Hielscher and Mahar, 2017 ; Van Hooijdonk et al, 2019 ), electrical stimulation (Mückschel et al, 2020 ), or mechanical stimulation that can be delivered by different actuators (Garcia-Hernandez et al, 2014 ): piezoelectric (Schriver et al, 2018 , 2020 ; Ganea et al, 2020 ; Lee et al, 2020 ), pneumatic (Moy et al, 2000 ; Yoo et al, 2015 ), electrical motor (Sarakoglou et al, 2012 , 2014 ), ultrasonic (Cugini et al, 2009 ; Kim et al, 2009 ; Bordegoni et al, 2010 ), shape memory alloy (SMA) (Velázquez et al, 2006 , 2008 ; Biet et al, 2008 ), and micro-actuators based on micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) technologies (Ninomiya et al, 2009 , 2011 ; Sarakoglou et al, 2012 , 2014 ; Streque et al, 2012 ).…”

Measuring stimulus-evoked neurophysiological differentiation in distinct populations of neurons in mouse visual cortex

“…Locomotion and pupil diameter can be considered behavioral indications of engagement with the environment (Jacobs et al, 2018; Ganea et al, 2018; Bennett et al, 2013) and modulate neuronal activity in visual cortex (Dadarlat & Stryker, 2017; McGinley, David, et al, 2015; McGinley, Vinck, et al, 2015; Niell & Stryker, 2010; Polack et al, 2013; Reimer et al, 2014; Salkoff et al, 2020; Vinck et al, 2015). We found that in L2/3 of AL & AM, effect sizes were positively correlated with locomotion activity ( Figure 4 , top left; Pearson’s r = 0.896; two-sided t -test; t (4) = 4.030, p = 0.0157) and pupil diameter ( Figure 4 , top right; r = 0.716; t (42) = 2.054, p = 0.109), suggesting that the difference in ND is more clear when the animal is engaged with the stimuli.…”