Pupil dilation and microsaccades provide complementary insights into the dynamics of arousal and instantaneous attention during effortful listening
Pupil dilation and microsaccades provide complementary insights into the dynamics of arousal and instantaneous attention during effortful listening
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瞳孔扩张和微扫视提供了对努力聆听过程中的唤醒和瞬时注意力动态的补充见解
DOI：
10.1101/2023.02.06.527294
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发表时间：
2023
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Contadini-Wright C
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Contadini-Wright C
在嘈杂的环境中聆听需要付出努力——积极投入注意力和其他认知能力——以及提高唤醒力。单独量化这些组成部分的贡献的能力对于理解努力的动态以及它在不同聆听情况和特定人群中如何变化的关键。我们同时测量了年轻参与者（男女）的两种类型的眼部数据：瞳孔扩张（PD；被认为反映努力的唤醒方面）和微扫视（MS；假设反映自动视觉探索性采样），同时他们在高（HL）和低（LL）听力负载条件下执行噪声中的语音任务。对句子进行操作，以便行为相关信息（关键词）出现在句子的末尾（实验 1）或开头（实验 2），从而导致对集中注意力的不同时间要求。与之前的报告一致，PD 效应与负载下扩张的增加有关。我们观察到 HL 和 LL 条件之间存在持续差异，与相性和强直性唤醒的增加一致。重要的是，我们表明 MS 速率也受到收听负载的调节。这表现为 HL 相对于 LL 的 MS 发生率降低。重要的是，与 PD 所见的持续差异相反，MS 的影响是在时间上局部化的，特别是在听觉注意力需求最大的时期。这些结果表明，听觉选择性注意与控制 MS 生成的机制相结合，将 MS 确立为一种信息测量，与 PD 互补，用它来量化在努力聆听条件下听觉注意处理的时间动态。 意义陈述 听力努力反映了在不利环境中有效处理声音所部署的“认知带宽”，对听力成功做出了至关重要的贡献。了解听力努力及其分配过程是听觉神经科学的主要挑战。在这里，我们证明微扫视率可用于索引听力努力的特定子组成部分，即瞬时听觉注意力的分配，这与通过瞳孔扩张索引的唤醒调制（目前听力努力的主要衡量标准）不同。这些结果揭示了听觉注意力与控制微扫视的（视觉）注意网络相互作用的推拉过程，将微扫视确立为测量听觉注意力及其缺陷的强大工具。
Listening in noisy environments requires effort- the active engagement of attention and other cognitive abilities- as well as increased arousal. The ability to separately quantify the contribution of these components is key to understanding the dynamics of effort and how it may change across listening situations and in certain populations. We concurrently measured two types of ocular data in young participants (both sexes): pupil dilation (PD; thought to index arousal aspects of effort) and microsaccades (MS; hypothesized to reflect automatic visual exploratory sampling), while they performed a speech-in-noise task under high- (HL) and low- (LL) listening load conditions. Sentences were manipulated so that the behaviorally relevant information (keywords) appeared at the end (Experiment 1) or beginning (Experiment 2) of the sentence, resulting in different temporal demands on focused attention. In line with previous reports, PD effects were associated with increased dilation under load. We observed a sustained difference between HL and LL conditions, consistent with increased phasic and tonic arousal. Importantly we show that MS rate was also modulated by listening load. This was manifested as a reduced MS rate in HL relative to LL. Critically, in contrast to the sustained difference seen for PD, MS effects were localized in time, specifically during periods when demands on auditory attention were greatest. These results demonstrate that auditory selective attention interfaces with the mechanisms controlling MS generation, establishing MS as an informative measure, complementary to PD, with which to quantify the temporal dynamics of auditory attentional processing under effortful listening conditions.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTListening effort, reflecting the “cognitive bandwidth” deployed to effectively process sound in adverse environments, contributes critically to listening success. Understanding listening effort and the processes involved in its allocation is a major challenge in auditory neuroscience. Here, we demonstrate that microsaccade rate can be used to index a specific subcomponent of listening effort, the allocation of instantaneous auditory attention, that is distinct from the modulation of arousal indexed by pupil dilation (currently the dominant measure of listening effort). These results reveal the push-pull process through which auditory attention interfaces with the (visual) attention network that controls microsaccades, establishing microsaccades as a powerful tool for measuring auditory attention and its deficits.