Pupil response hazard rates predict perceived gaze durations

We investigated the mechanisms for evaluating perceived gaze-shift duration. Timing relies on the accumulation of endogenous physiological signals. Here we focused on arousal, measured through pupil dilation, as a candidate timing signal. Participants timed gaze-shifts performed by face stimuli in a...

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Main Authors: Binetti, Nicola, Harrison, Charlotte, Mareschal, Isabelle, Johnston, Alan
Format: Article
Published: Nature Publishing Group 2017
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/43883/
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author Binetti, Nicola
Harrison, Charlotte
Mareschal, Isabelle
Johnston, Alan
author_facet Binetti, Nicola
Harrison, Charlotte
Mareschal, Isabelle
Johnston, Alan
author_sort Binetti, Nicola
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description We investigated the mechanisms for evaluating perceived gaze-shift duration. Timing relies on the accumulation of endogenous physiological signals. Here we focused on arousal, measured through pupil dilation, as a candidate timing signal. Participants timed gaze-shifts performed by face stimuli in a Standard/Probe comparison task. Pupil responses were binned according to “Longer/Shorter” judgements in trials where Standard and Probe were identical. This ensured that pupil responses reflected endogenous arousal fluctuations opposed to differences in stimulus content. We found that pupil hazard rates predicted the classification of sub-second intervals (steeper dilation =“Longer” classifications). This shows that the accumulation of endogenous arousal signals informs gaze-shift timing judgements. We also found that participants relied exclusively on the 2nd stimulus to perform the classification, providing insights into timing strategies under conditions of maximum uncertainty. We observed no dissociation in pupil responses when timing equivalent neutral spatial displacements, indicating that a stimulus-dependent timer exploits arousal to time gaze-shifts.
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spelling nottingham-438832020-05-04T18:50:50Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/43883/ Pupil response hazard rates predict perceived gaze durations Binetti, Nicola Harrison, Charlotte Mareschal, Isabelle Johnston, Alan We investigated the mechanisms for evaluating perceived gaze-shift duration. Timing relies on the accumulation of endogenous physiological signals. Here we focused on arousal, measured through pupil dilation, as a candidate timing signal. Participants timed gaze-shifts performed by face stimuli in a Standard/Probe comparison task. Pupil responses were binned according to “Longer/Shorter” judgements in trials where Standard and Probe were identical. This ensured that pupil responses reflected endogenous arousal fluctuations opposed to differences in stimulus content. We found that pupil hazard rates predicted the classification of sub-second intervals (steeper dilation =“Longer” classifications). This shows that the accumulation of endogenous arousal signals informs gaze-shift timing judgements. We also found that participants relied exclusively on the 2nd stimulus to perform the classification, providing insights into timing strategies under conditions of maximum uncertainty. We observed no dissociation in pupil responses when timing equivalent neutral spatial displacements, indicating that a stimulus-dependent timer exploits arousal to time gaze-shifts. Nature Publishing Group 2017-06-21 Article PeerReviewed Binetti, Nicola, Harrison, Charlotte, Mareschal, Isabelle and Johnston, Alan (2017) Pupil response hazard rates predict perceived gaze durations. Scientific Reports, 7 (1). p. 3969. ISSN 2045-2322 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-04249-9 doi:10.1038/s41598-017-04249-9 doi:10.1038/s41598-017-04249-9
spellingShingle Binetti, Nicola
Harrison, Charlotte
Mareschal, Isabelle
Johnston, Alan
Pupil response hazard rates predict perceived gaze durations
title Pupil response hazard rates predict perceived gaze durations
title_full Pupil response hazard rates predict perceived gaze durations
title_fullStr Pupil response hazard rates predict perceived gaze durations
title_full_unstemmed Pupil response hazard rates predict perceived gaze durations
title_short Pupil response hazard rates predict perceived gaze durations
title_sort pupil response hazard rates predict perceived gaze durations
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/43883/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/43883/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/43883/