Hayes Taylor R, Petrov Alexander A
Ohio State University.
J Cogn Neurosci. 2016 Feb;28(2):308-18. doi: 10.1162/jocn_a_00895. Epub 2015 Oct 21.
The ability to adaptively shift between exploration and exploitation control states is critical for optimizing behavioral performance. Converging evidence from primate electrophysiology and computational neural modeling has suggested that this ability may be mediated by the broad norepinephrine projections emanating from the locus coeruleus (LC) [Aston-Jones, G., & Cohen, J. D. An integrative theory of locus coeruleus-norepinephrine function: Adaptive gain and optimal performance. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 28, 403-450, 2005]. There is also evidence that pupil diameter covaries systematically with LC activity. Although imperfect and indirect, this link makes pupillometry a useful tool for studying the locus coeruleus norepinephrine system in humans and in high-level tasks. Here, we present a novel paradigm that examines how the pupillary response during exploration and exploitation covaries with individual differences in fluid intelligence during analogical reasoning on Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices. Pupillometry was used as a noninvasive proxy for LC activity, and concurrent think-aloud verbal protocols were used to identify exploratory and exploitative solution periods. This novel combination of pupillometry and verbal protocols from 40 participants revealed a decrease in pupil diameter during exploitation and an increase during exploration. The temporal dynamics of the pupillary response was characterized by a steep increase during the transition to exploratory periods, sustained dilation for many seconds afterward, and followed by gradual return to baseline. Moreover, the individual differences in the relative magnitude of pupillary dilation accounted for 16% of the variance in Advanced Progressive Matrices scores. Assuming that pupil diameter is a valid index of LC activity, these results establish promising preliminary connections between the literature on locus coeruleus norepinephrine-mediated cognitive control and the literature on analogical reasoning and fluid intelligence.
在探索性控制状态和利用性控制状态之间进行适应性切换的能力对于优化行为表现至关重要。来自灵长类动物电生理学和计算神经模型的越来越多的证据表明，这种能力可能由蓝斑（LC）发出的广泛去甲肾上腺素投射介导[Aston-Jones, G., & Cohen, J. D. 蓝斑-去甲肾上腺素功能的整合理论：适应性增益和最佳表现。《神经科学年度评论》，28, 403 - 450, 2005]。也有证据表明瞳孔直径与LC活动系统地共变。尽管这种联系并不完美且是间接的，但它使瞳孔测量成为研究人类蓝斑去甲肾上腺素系统和高级任务的有用工具。在这里，我们提出了一种新颖的范式，该范式研究在瑞文高级渐进矩阵的类比推理过程中，探索和利用过程中的瞳孔反应如何与流体智力的个体差异共变。瞳孔测量被用作LC活动的非侵入性替代指标，同时使用出声思维的言语记录来识别探索性和利用性的解题阶段。来自40名参与者的这种瞳孔测量和言语记录的新颖组合揭示了在利用阶段瞳孔直径减小，在探索阶段瞳孔直径增加。瞳孔反应的时间动态特征是在过渡到探索阶段时急剧增加，随后持续扩张数秒，然后逐渐恢复到基线。此外，瞳孔扩张相对幅度的个体差异占高级渐进矩阵分数方差的16%。假设瞳孔直径是LC活动的有效指标，这些结果在蓝斑去甲肾上腺素介导的认知控制文献与类比推理和流体智力文献之间建立了有前景的初步联系。
