A METACOGNITIVE RESPONSE OF THE FACE AND THE HEART IN RATS

Imagine catching yourself from making a mistake. You stop moving just in time. Humans make emotional facial expressions and have a cardiac response when they catch themselves in a mistake or receive feedback about task performance. It is unknown if rodents exhibit similar visceral responses in the context of metacognition. We assessed heart rate variability (HRV) and machine learning-detected facial expressions as female and male rats stopped in-progress mistakes and received post-choice rewards or error cues. Head-fixed rats were placed on a non-motorized treadmill and trained to run past a distance threshold in response to a Go visual stimulus but remain immobile in response to a NoGo visual stimulus. HRV was modulated during internally detected mistakes, as well as in response to external error cues. Rats also made unique facial expressions in response to the internal detection of mistakes and to task feedback. Our results show that, in rats, there is a facial and cardiac response associated with receiving task feedback or catching themselves in a mistake.