Authors
Olivier Codol, Mehrdad Kashefi, Christopher J Forgaard, Joseph M Galea, J Andrew Pruszynski, Paul L Gribble
Publication date
2023/1/13
Journal
Elife
Volume
12
Pages
e81325
Publisher
eLife Sciences Publications Limited
Description
Although it is well established that motivational factors such as earning more money for performing well improve motor performance, how the motor system implements this improvement remains unclear. For instance, feedback-based control, which uses sensory feedback from the body to correct for errors in movement, improves with greater reward. But feedback control encompasses many feedback loops with diverse characteristics such as the brain regions involved and their response time. Which specific loops drive these performance improvements with reward is unknown, even though their diversity makes it unlikely that they are contributing uniformly. We systematically tested the effect of reward on the latency (how long for a corrective response to arise?) and gain (how large is the corrective response?) of seven distinct sensorimotor feedback loops in humans. Only the fastest feedback loops were insensitive to reward, and the earliest reward-driven changes were consistently an increase in feedback gains, not a reduction in latency. Rather, a reduction of response latencies only tended to occur in slower feedback loops. These observations were similar across sensory modalities (vision and proprioception). Our results may have implications regarding feedback control performance in athletic coaching. For instance, coaching methodologies that rely on reinforcement or ‘reward shaping’may need to specifically target aspects of movement that rely on reward-sensitive feedback responses.
Total citations
202220232024145
Scholar articles
C Olivier, K Mehrdad, CJ Forgaard, JM Galea… - eLife, 2023