Task-irrelevant stimuli reliably boost phasic pupil-linked arousal but do not affect decision formation

Abstract The arousal systems of the brainstem, specifically the locus coeruleus-noradrenaline system, respond “phasically” during decisions. These central arousal transients are accompanied by dilations of the pupil. Mechanistic attempts to understand the impact of phasic arousal on cognition would benefit from the ability to experimentally manipulate arousal in a temporally precise manner. Here, we evaluated a non-invasive candidate approach for such a manipulation in humans: presenting task-irrelevant auditory stimuli at different latencies during the execution of a challenging task. Task-irrelevant auditory stimuli drive responses of brainstem nuclei involved in the control of pupil size. But it is unknown whether such sound-evoked responses mimic the central arousal transients evoked during cognitive computations. A large body of evidence has implicated central arousal transients in a bias reduction during challenging perceptual decisions. We thus used challenging visual decisions as a testbed, combining them with task-irrelevant sounds of varying onset latency or duration. Across three experiments, the sounds consistently elicited well-controlled pupil responses that superimposed onto task-evoked responses. While we replicated a negative correlation between task-evoked pupil responses and bias established in previous work, the task-irrelevant sounds had no behavioral effect. This dissociation suggests that cognitive task engagement and task-irrelevant sounds may recruit distinct neural systems contributing to the control of pupil size.