Arousal dynamics predict transitions in engagement state

This event is part of a series of Psychology seminars that regularly occurs during the Autumn and Spring terms.

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.