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. 2017 Feb 28:8:290.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00290. eCollection 2017.

Integration of Advance Information about a Forthcoming Task Switch - Evidence from Eye Blink Rates

Thomas Kleinsorge  1 , Juliane Scheil  1
Affiliations

Integration of Advance Information about a Forthcoming Task Switch - Evidence from Eye Blink Rates

Thomas Kleinsorge et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

We investigated task switching among four tasks by means of a modified cuing procedure with two types of cues. One type of cue consisted of a standard task cue indicating the next task. In half of the trials, this task cue was preceded by another type of cue that reduced the set of candidate tasks from four to two tasks. In addition, we measured participants' spontaneous eye blink rates (EBRs) at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of the experiment. Whereas interindividual differences in mean EBR had no pronounced effect on task switching performance, changes in EBRs during the first half of the experiment significantly modulated the interaction of the effects of the two types of cues. We suggest that changes in EBRs in the early phase of the experiment reflect adaptations of dopaminergic projections serving to integrate advance information about a forthcoming task switch.

Keywords: dopamine; executive control; eye blink rate; preparation; task switching.

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Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Mean error rate (ER) as a function of eye blink rate (EBR) at t1, Pre-Cue, CTI, and task transition. Error bars represent SEM.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Mean reaction time (RT) as a function of EBR t1-t2, Pre-Cue, CTI, and task transition. Error bars represent SEM.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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