Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Document Type

Poster

Publication Date

Fall 12-2-2020

Faculty Advisor(s)

Aaron Schurger and Uri Maoz

Abstract

The neuroscience of volition, to a large extent, investigates the neural precursors of conscious decision-making and action. Pupillometry is a powerful tool for investigating conscious and attentional processing, partly because of its connection to the locus coeruleus (Josh et al., 2016). For instance, in an attentional blink paradigm, differences in pupil dilations were associated with conscious versus nonconscious stimuli (Wierda et al., 2012). Nevertheless, this technique received little attention in the study of volition.

We collected pupil data during a spontaneous action paradigm, where subjects freely pressed a button at a time of their choosing, sometimes reporting their onset of movement or of intention using a clock (Libet et al., 1983). Preliminary analysis (N=12) demonstrated significant differences in baseline pupil size between conditions, potentially indicating cognitive load differences. Furthermore, replicating Richer and Beatty (1985), we found significant dilations before spontaneous movements. There were also indications that larger, pre-movement pupil dilations occur before reporting movement compared to before intention timing. These results support arguments that task demands, such as monitoring awareness, may affect the underlying neural activity leading to action and impact recorded signals—e.g., the readiness potential (Trevana and Miller, 2011). Moreover, these results offer a starting point for the use of pupillometry in studying conscious action production.

Comments

Presented at the virtual Fall 2020 Student Scholar Symposium at Chapman University.

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