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

Frontiers in Psychology

Thomas Kleinsorge¹ 

关键词: task switching;    dopamine;    preparation;    executive control;    eye blink rate;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00290

学科分类：心理学（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

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.

【 授权许可】

CC BY