ArticleCommunications biology2025
Pupil size predicts exploration through critical slowing in prefrontal dynamics.
Article in Communications biology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- Foraging models explain human exploration in uncertain tasks.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Neural Reward Processing in Digital Addiction: A Dynamical Systems Theory of Reward Instability.Brain sciences · 2026Article
- Pharmacological and light-driven pupillary accommodation in guinea pigs: comparative effects of muscarinic modulators and illumination across developmental stages.International journal of ophthalmology · 2026Article
- Pupil size predicts exploration through critical slowing in prefrontal dynamics.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Noisy Memory Generates Value in Changing Environments.Adaptive behavior · 2025Article
- Scanpath EEG dynamic, a new perspective for neuroaesthetic connoisseurship in paintings.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Review
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6 authors.
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Abstract
In uncertain environments, intelligent decision-makers exploit actions that have been rewarding in the past, but also explore actions that could be better. Several studies link exploration to pupil size-a peripheral correlate of neuromodulatory tone and arousal. However, pupil size may only track variables that make exploration more likely, such as volatility or reward, without directly predicting exploration or its neural bases. Here, we simultaneously measured pupil size, exploration, and neural population activity in the prefrontal cortex while two male rhesus macaques explored and exploited in a dynamic environment. We find that pupil size under constant luminance specifically predicts the onset of exploration beyond effects of reward history. Pupil size also predicts disorganized patterns of prefrontal activity at the single neuron and population levels. Our results support a model in which pupil-linked mechanisms drive exploration by pushing prefrontal dynamics through a critical tipping point.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.