title: Pupil-linked arousal is driven by decision uncertainty and alters serial choice bias.
abstract: While judging their sensory environments, decision-makers seem to use the uncertainty about their choices to guide adjustments of their subsequent behaviour. One possible source of these behavioural adjustments is arousal: decision uncertainty might drive the brain's arousal systems, which control global brain state and might thereby shape subsequent decision-making. Here, we measure pupil diameter, a proxy for central arousal state, in human observers performing a perceptual choice task of varying difficulty. Pupil dilation, after choice but before external feedback, reflects three hallmark signatures of decision uncertainty derived from a computational model. This increase in pupil-linked arousal boosts observers' tendency to alternate their choice on the subsequent trial. We conclude that decision uncertainty drives rapid changes in pupil-linked arousal state, which shape the serial correlation structure of ongoing choice behaviour.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurophysiology and Pathophysiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg 20246, Germany.|Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam 1018 WT, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Anne E
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-5270-6513
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Urai
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurophysiology and Pathophysiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg 20246, Germany.
authors.forename: Anke
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-1946-7765
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Braun
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurophysiology and Pathophysiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg 20246, Germany.|Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam 1018 WT, The Netherlands.|Amsterdam Brain and Cognition (ABC), University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam 1018 WT, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Tobias H
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Donner
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology*; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D025461:Feedback, Physiological / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D064368:Healthy Volunteers; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008954:Models, Biological; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D011680:Pupil / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time; D035501:Uncertainty; D055815:Young Adult