bioRxiv Science⌕ Search
Home/Archive/bioRxiv

bioRxiv · 10.1101/2025.05.19.654866

Dissociable Pupil and Oculomotor Markers of Attention Allocation and Distractor Suppression during listening

Liu, X.·Chait, M.
View original source ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

Emerging evidence suggests that ocular dynamics, pupil dilation, eye movements, and blinks, can serve as markers of task engagement. In this study, we examined whether these measures dissociate different perceptual states during an auditory attention task. Participants (Main and Control experiments; N = 34 and 27, both sexes) listened to tone sequences designated as Target, Distractor, and Probe, designed to isolate active attention from suppression of irrelevant input. We focused on four physiological signals: pupil diameter (PD), pupil dilation rate (PDR), blink rate, and microsaccades (MS). Compared to a control condition, both Target and Probe intervals elicited sustained PD increases, blink suppression, and prolonged MS inhibition indicating extended attentional engagement. Interestingly, the Distractor interval also showed prolonged blink suppression and elevated PDR, suggesting active arousal to suppress irrelevant input. However, MS dynamics during Distractors were indistinguishable from control, implying that attention was not allocated to the distractors despite the heightened arousal. This dissociation supports the interpretation that MS is specifically modulated by attentional allocation, while PD and blinks also reflect general arousal or suppressive mechanisms. Overall, these findings reveal that PD, MS, and blinking capture distinct aspects of cognitive control. Together, they offer a multidimensional framework for studying selective attention and distractor suppression in complex tasks. Significance statementUnderstanding an individuals moment-to-moment state during demanding attention tasks is crucial for identifying perceptual challenges, explaining inter-individual variability, and diagnosing difficulties in special populations. Ocular measures, such as pupil size, blinks, and microsaccades, are gaining traction as objective, non-invasive indicators of perceptual and cognitive states. In this study, we demonstrate that, during a challenging auditory task requiring selective attention and active ignoring, different eye-related signals capture distinct aspects of listener state. Specifically, the dynamics observed during active attention differ systematically from those during active distractor suppression. These findings highlight the value of ocular metrics for assessment of cognitive performance and for disentangling the contributions of arousal and attention during complex tasks.

Source connections

Explore related subjects

neurosciencePreprint

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Liu, X., Chait, M.. 2025-05-21. Dissociable Pupil and Oculomotor Markers of Attention Allocation and Distractor Suppression during listening. https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.05.19.654866

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related preprints

bioRxiv2026

Attention Across Scales: From Individual Variation to Social Hierarchies and Brain Networks in Semi-Free-Ranging Macaques

Attention is a fundamental brain function supporting perception, decision-making, and social behavior, and its dysfunction profoundly impairs daily life. It is both dynamic and stable, varying across observations and individuals, changing across the lifespan, and being shaped by social and environmental experience. Yet capturing this complexity remains a central challenge in neuroscience. Here, we integrated longitudinal behavioral assessments of semi-free-ranging macaques living in naturalistic social groups with resting-state fMRI. We quantified performance across days, ages, and social hierarchies and related it to intrinsic brain organization. Distinct attentional phenotypes emerged, including individuals with reduced attentional control. Performance followed an inverted-U lifespan trajectory, improving from childhood to adulthood before declining. Social status modulated attentional performance. Critically, nonlinear lifespan trajectories and associations with individual attentional differences were most clearly expressed in frontoparietal connectivity. Together, these findings reveal how sustained attention is organized across scales, providing a biological framework for its individual diversity, social modulation, and neural basis.

neuroscience↗
bioRxiv2026

Decoding natural scenes from patterned optogenetic responses in mouse visual cortex

A central challenge in developing visual cortical prostheses is to determine how visual stimuli should be transformed into effective patterns of cortical stimulation. Although advances in stimulation technologies, including optogenetics, provide increasingly precise control over cortical activity, it remains unclear whether artificially evoked activity can reproduce the information content of naturally evoked visual representations. Here we establish a quantitative framework for evaluating visual encoding strategies by decoding cortical responses evoked by natural vision and patterned optogenetic stimulation. We developed a novel dual-modal paradigm in awake mice to bridge the gap between endogenous photostimulation and artificial network driving. By co-expressing the high-performance calcium indicator GCaMP6s and the red-shifted, ultra-sensitive opsin rsChRmine-oScarlet in the primary visual cortex (V1), we successfully translated dynamic natural movie frames into patterned, spatiotemporal optogenetic stimulation. Quantitative comparisons of macro-scale dynamics demonstrated that this patterned optogenetic injection evokes cortical states highly comparable and representationally aligned with those driven by actual visual photostimulation. To systematically evaluate the fidelity of these responses, we developed STAR, a deep learning model featuring spatial and temporal attention mechanisms, and successfully reconstructed the frames of natural movies from V1 signals under both experimental modalities. Collectively, our results demonstrate that complex sensory information can be both naturally encoded and synthetically injected into V1 circuits with high decoding fidelity. This work provides an empirical and computational proof-of-concept for intelligent, closed-loop biomimetic encoders, establishing a robust framework for next-generation cortical visual neuroprostheses and bidirectional brain-machine interfaces.

neuroscience↗
bioRxiv2026

Why Is Spontaneous Blink Timing Informative? An Adaptive Scheduling Perspective

Spontaneous eye blinks have long been linked to cognitive processing, yet how task demands shape blink timing and its relationship to behavioral performance remains unclear. We examined spontaneous blink behavior in 576 adults performing two variants of the Continuous Performance Task (CPT). Blink occurrence and timing were most strongly modulated by the experimental condition in the more demanding CPT-AX task, whereas their association with response time was stronger in the CPT-X task, where more consistent blink timing predicted faster responses. This dissociation suggests that task structure changes not only blink behavior but also the behavioral relevance of blink timing. These findings are consistent with an adaptive scheduling account of spontaneous blinking and provide a conceptual framework for understanding when and why blink timing contains chronometric information about ongoing cognition.

neuroscience↗