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Poster Session A: Tuesday, August 12, 1:30 – 4:30 pm, de Brug & E‑Hall

Mid-level arousal facilitates optimal behavioral state in humans and mice

Stijn Nuiten¹; ¹#NAME?

Presenter: Jan Willem de Gee

Perceptual choice behavior alternates between discrete strategies, which can be identified through hidden Markov modeling. Peak performance occurs during mid-level pupil-linked arousal. Here, we (i) replicated the previously observed “inverted-U” relationship between baseline pupil-linked arousal in mice and engaged state occurrence (Hulsey et al., 2024), (ii) confirmed the model-based prediction that this relationship is mediated by GABAergic interneurons and (iii) established that this relationship generalizes to humans. We conclude that arousal dynamically modulates the cortical state of a sensory region to optimize perceptual decision-making.

Topic Area: Reward, Value & Social Decision Making

Extended Abstract: Full Text PDF