Coordination effort in joint action is reflected in pupil size

Humans often perform visual tasks together, and when doing so, they tend to devise division of labor strategies to share the load. Implementing such strategies, however, is effortful as co-actors need to coordinate their actions. We tested if pupil size - a physiological correlate of mental effort - can detect such a coordination effort in a multiple object tracking task (MOT). Participants performed the MOT task jointly with a computer partner and either devised a division of labor strategy (main experiment) or the labor division was already pre-determined (control experiment). We observed that pupil sizes increase relative to performing the MOT task alone in the main experiment while this is not the case in the control experiment. These findings suggest that pupil size can detect a rise in coordination effort, extending the view that pupil size indexes mental effort across a wide range of cognitively demanding tasks

Energiset eväät elämään : ravitsemusohjausta nuorille tytöille terveyttä edistäen

Toiminnallisessa opinnäytetyössä tuotettiin ravitsemusohjausta Siilinjärven Pesiksen nuorille, 11–14-vuotiaille tyttöpelaajille. Toiminnallisena osuutena järjestettiin joukkueelle yksipäiväinen ohjaustilaisuus, jossa käytiin läpi liikunnallisesti aktiivisten nuorten ravitsemusasioita. Joukkue sai tilaisuuden jälkeen käyttöönsä tekemämme opetusmateriaalin myöhemminkin hyödynnettäväksi. Opinnäytetyö perustuu uusiin, vuonna 2014 ilmestyneisiin ravitsemussuosituksiin. Työn tavoitteena oli tuoda tietoa ja herättää nuoria ajattelemaan oikeanlaista ravitsemusta, liikuntaharrastukseen yhdistettynä. Nuorten ravitsemusasiat ovat herättäneet paljon keskustelua viime vuosina. Lasten ja nuorten ylipaino ja lihavuus ovat lisääntyneet, ja erityisena huolenaiheena on liiallinen sokerin ja huonolaatuisen rasvan saanti. Useat kansansairaudet, kuten diabetes ja sydän-ja verisuonitaudit, saavat alkunsa jo lapsuus-ja nuoruusiän ravitsemusvalinnoista. Nuorilla tytöillä erityisesti ulkonäköpaineet aiheuttavat haasteita ravitsemuksen ja ravitsemusneuvonnan suhteen. Tyttöjen ravitsemusohjauksessa onkin tärkeää korostaa, että hyvän ravitsemuksen avulla paino asettuu pituuden suhteen optimaaliselle tasolle. Ohjaustilaisuutemme koettiin onnistuneeksi ja tarpeelliseksi. Tilaisuuden materiaalia voi hyödyntää myöhemmin esimerkiksi toisenkin joukkueen käyttöön. Jatkossa voidaan selvittää esimerkiksi eri-ikäisten pelaajien ravitsemustottumuksia, tai suunnata ohjaus jonkin toisen urheilulajin pelaajille.The purpose of our functional thesis was to produce nutrition guidance for the 11–14-year-old junior girl players of Siilinjärvi Pesis. As a functional section we arranged a guidance session for the team. During the session we covered the nutritional effects for physically active youth through our slide show. After that the team received our slide show to use later on. Our thesis is based on the new nutritional recommendations published in 2014. The purpose of our thesis was to bring more information and to invite reflection on healthy nutrition combined with exercising. The nutrition of youth has stimulated a lot of discussion in recent years. The overweight and obesity of children and youth have increased, and in particular the excessive use of sugar and low-quality fat raises concerns. Several national diseases, such as diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, usually begin with the nutrition choices made in the childhood and youth. In addition, childhood obesity and overweight continues at high probability to adulthood. Particularly with young girls, the appearance pressures challenges nutrition, and nutrition guidance. That is why it is important to emphasize that good nutrition sets the weight in an optimal level with the height. Our guidance session was perceived succesful and necessary by the team. The slideshow can be used later of for example with another team. The further studies could explore for example the nutritional habits of players at different ages, or the study could be made for players of another sport

Baseline Pupil Size Seems Unrelated to Fluid Intelligence, Working Memory Capacity, and Attentional Control

Over the past few years, several studies have explored the relationship between resting-state baseline pupil size and cognitive abilities, including fluid intelligence, working memory capacity, and attentional control. However, the results have been inconsistent. Here we present the findings from two experiments designed to replicate and expand previous research, with the aim of clarifying previous mixed findings. In both experiments, we measured baseline pupil size while participants were not engaged in any tasks, and assessed fluid intelligence using a matrix task. In one experiment we also measured working memory capacity (letter-number-sequencing task) and attentional control (attentional-capture task). We controlled for several personal and demographic variables known to influence pupil size, such as age and nicotine consumption. Our analyses revealed no relationship between resting-state pupil size (average or variability) and any of the measured constructs, neither before nor after controlling for confounding variables. Taken together, our results suggest that any relationship between resting-state pupil size and cognitive abilities is likely to be weak or non-existent.</p

eeg-data

Data storage for the project on arousal-related neural activity, pupil size dynamics, and visual detectio

Arousal-Related Neural Activity, Pupil Size Dynamics, and Visual Detection

Materials for a project investigating the relationships between arousal-related neural activity, pupil size dynamics, and visual detection performance

pupil-data

Data storage for the project on arousal-related neural activity, pupil size dynamics, and visual detectio

Coordination effort in joint action is reflected in pupil size

Humans often perform visual tasks together, and when doing so, they tend to devise division of labor strategies to share the load. Implementing such strategies, however, is effortful as co-actors need to coordinate their actions. We tested if pupil size – a physiological correlate of mental effort – can detect such a coordination effort in a multiple object tracking task (MOT). Participants performed the MOT task jointly with a computer partner and either devised a division of labor strategy (main experiment) or the labor division was already pre-determined (control experiment). We observed that pupil sizes increase relative to performing the MOT task alone in the main experiment while this is not the case in the control experiment. These findings suggest that pupil size can detect a rise in coordination effort, extending the view that pupil size indexes mental effort across a wide range of cognitively demanding tasks

Effects of pupil size as manipulated through ipRGC activation on visual processing

The size of the eyes’ pupils determines how much light enters the eye and also how well this light is focused. Through this route, pupil size shapes the earliest stages of visual processing. Yet causal effects of pupil size on vision are poorly understood and rarely studied. Here we introduce a new way to manipulate pupil size, which relies on activation of intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs) to induce sustained pupil constriction. We report the effects of both experimentally induced and spontaneous changes in pupil size on visual processing as measured through EEG. We compare these to the effects of stimulus intensity and covert visual attention, because previous studies have shown that these factors all have comparable effects on some common measures of early visual processing, such as detection performance and steady-state visual evoked potentials; yet it is still unclear whether these are superficial similarities, or rather whether they reflect similar underlying processes. Using a mix of neural-network decoding, ERP analyses, and time-frequency analyses, we find that induced pupil size, spontaneous pupil size, stimulus intensity, and covert visual attention all affect EEG responses, mainly over occipital and parietal electrodes, but—crucially—that they do so in qualitatively different ways. Induced and spontaneous pupil-size changes mainly modulate activity patterns (but not overall power or intertrial coherence) in the high-frequency beta range; this may reflect an effect of pupil size on oculomotor activity and/ or visual processing. In addition, spontaneous (but not induced) pupil size tends to correlate positively with intertrial coherence in the alpha band; this may reflect a non-causal relationship, mediated by arousal. Taken together, our findings suggest that pupil size has qualitatively different effects on visual processing from stimulus intensity and covert visual attention. This shows that pupil size as manipulated through ipRGC activation strongly affects visual processing, and provides concrete starting points for further study of this important yet understudied earliest stage of visual processing