Abstract
To avoid costly situations animals must be able to rapidly predict imminent threat based on past experience and present noisy sensory evidence. We aimed to characterize to what extent active exploration strategies, can be adaptively tuned to achieve this goal. We measured how eye-movement patterns on 8 faces, organized along a circular similarity continuum, were modified after aversive learning and generalization. Using model-based Fixation Similarity Analysis, we characterized how similarity relationships between exploration strategies were modified after volunteers learnt to pair one face (CS+) with a mild electric shock. Initially, viewing patterns reflected the circular physical similarity structure of different faces, indicating that eye-movements were guided by subtle differences between faces. Following aversive learning, the similarity structure of exploration patterns became elliptical and stretched along the adversity gradient defined by the CS+ and the most dissimilar neutral face (CS-), indicating that exploration patterns on these faces were most dissimilar. These findings suggest that the need to predict adversity introduces substantial remodelling of exploration patterns and influences entire sensorimotor loops by selecting fixation locations that can help in categorizing stimuli as aversive or safe.