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Contributed Talk Session: Thursday, August 14, 11:00 am – 12:00 pm, Room C1.04
Poster Session C: Friday, August 15, 2:00 – 5:00 pm, de Brug & E‑Hall

Arousal dynamics predict transitions in engagement state

Philippa A. Johnson¹, Sander Nieuwenhuis, Anne Urai¹; ¹Leiden University

Presenter: Philippa A. Johnson

When completing a task for a prolonged period, animals switch between being engaged and disengaged in what they are doing. What neural and physiological processes trigger these behavioural state transitions? We estimate the engagement state of mice using a hidden Markov model of response times and found that intermediate arousal was associated with more engagement in the task. Additionally, we show that changes in arousal predict subsequent changes in behavioural state. To explain this, we propose a double-well model, in which arousal causes behavioural state transitions by reshaping the attractor landscape of population neural activity. These results highlight a possible mechanism of arousal-related changes in behaviour and suggest the presence of early warning signals for behavioural state switches.

Topic Area: Brain Networks & Neural Dynamics

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