AI Article Synopsis
- Pupil size fluctuates with breathing, dilating during inhalation and constricting during exhalation when a person is at rest.
- During a cognitive task like delayed matching-to-sample, both pupil size and heart rate variability (measured by RRIs) show respiratory-related changes before the task begins.
- However, while engaging fully in the task leads to increased pupil dilation, the normal respiratory influence on pupil size disappears, indicating that cognitive engagement can override the autonomic control of pupil diameter.
Article Abstract
Pupil diameter fluctuation throughout the respiratory cycle is autonomically controlled in the resting state, as pupils dilate during inspiration and constrict during expiration. Furthermore, pupil size is differentially modulated by cognitive states between task engagement and disengagement. To determine whether respiratory-dependent fluctuations in pupil size are maintained during a cognitive task, we employed healthy human subjects performing a delayed matching-to-sample task with a short delay and measured their pupil sizes and R wave-to-R wave intervals (RRIs). We detected respiratory fluctuations in pupil size and the RRI during the delay period immediately before the discrimination stage of the task. During the discrimination stage, the cognitive state with the higher task engagement yielded more pupil dilation. However, respiratory fluctuations in pupil size were abolished, whereas those in the RRI were still discernible during the discrimination stage. Our results suggest that an alternative control mechanism involving the cognitive state associated with task engagement overrides the respiratory-related autonomic control of pupil diameter.
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| http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.resp.2018.07.005 | DOI Listing |
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