Atypical pupil-linked arousal induced by low-risk probabilistic choices, and intolerance of uncertainty in adults with ASD.

Adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience stress when operating in a probabilistic environment, even if it is familiar, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Their decision-making may be affected by the uncertainty aversion implicated in ASD and associated with increased autonomic arousal. Previous studies have shown that in neurotypical (NT) people, decisions with predictably better outcomes are less stressful and elicit smaller pupil-linked arousal than those involving exploration.

Losses resulting from deliberate exploration trigger beta oscillations in frontal cortex.

We examined the neural signature of directed exploration by contrasting MEG beta (16-30 Hz) power changes between disadvantageous and advantageous choices in the two-choice probabilistic reward task. We analyzed the choices made after the participants have learned the probabilistic contingency between choices and their outcomes, i.e.

Pupil dilation and response slowing distinguish deliberate explorative choices in the probabilistic learning task.

This study examined whether pupil size and response time would distinguish directed exploration from random exploration and exploitation. Eighty-nine participants performed the two-choice probabilistic learning task while their pupil size and response time were continuously recorded. Using LMM analysis, we estimated differences in the pupil size and response time between the advantageous and disadvantageous choices as a function of learning success, i.