AUTHOR=Fernando Nethali , Robison Matthew , Maia Pedro D. 

TITLE=Analysis of goal, feedback and rewards on sustained attention via machine learning

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience

VOLUME=Volume 18 - 2024

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/behavioral-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnbeh.2024.1386723

DOI=10.3389/fnbeh.2024.1386723

ISSN=1662-5153

ABSTRACT=Sustaining attention is a notoriously difficult task as shown in a recent experiment where reaction times (RTs) and pupillometry data were recorded from 350 subjects in a 30-minute vigilance task. Subjects were also presented with different types of goal, feedback, and reward. In this study, we revisit this experimental data and solve three families of machine learning problems: (i) RT-regression problems, to predict subjects' RTs using all available data, (ii) RT-classification problems, to classify responses more broadly as attentive, semi-attentive, and inattentive, and (iii) to predict the subjects' experimental conditions from physiological data. After establishing that regressing RTs is in general a difficult task, we achieve better results classifying them in broader categories. We also successfully disambiguate subjects who received goals and rewards from those who did not. Finally, we quantify changes in accuracy when coarser features (averaged throughout multiple trials) are used. Interestingly, the machine learning pipeline selects different features depending on their resolution, suggesting that predictive physiological features are also resolution-specific.