Action Costs Rapidly and Automatically Interfere with Reward-Based Decision-Making in a Reaching Task

Pierrieau, Emeline; Lepage, Jean‐François; Bernier, Pierre‐Michel

doi:10.1523/eneuro.0247-21.2021

Cited by 16 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…This concerns the increased swing leg effect for larger turning requirements in experiment 1a , the larger swing leg effect in experiment 1b compared to experiment 1a , and the influence of turning magnitude when displayed concurrently with movement execution in experiment 2 . These findings add to the influence of motor costs on decision-making choices without concurrent action ( 1 , 43 , 44 ). For such sequential decisions, time and force have been identified as cost dimensions ( 45 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 63%

Embodied decisions during walking

Grießbach

Raßbach

Herbort

et al. 2022

Journal of Neurophysiology

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Research on embodied decision-making only recently started to examine whether and how concurrent actions influence value-based decisions. For instance, during walking humans preferably make decisions that align with a turn towards the side of their current swing leg, sometimes resulting in unfavorable choices (e.g., less rewards). It is suggested that concurrent movements influence decision-making by coincidental changes in motor costs. If true, systematic manipulations of motor costs should bias decisions. To test this, participants had to accumulate rewards (i.e., points) by walking and turning towards left and right targets displaying rewards across three experiments. In Exp. 1a and 1b, we manipulated turning cost based on the current swing leg by applying different symmetrical turning magnitudes (i.e., same angles for left and right targets). In Exp. 2, we manipulated the turning cost by administering asymmetrical turning magnitudes (i.e., different angles for left and right targets). Finally, in Exp. 3, we increased the cost of walking by adding ankle weights. Altogether, the experiments support the claim that differences in motor costs influenced participants' decisions: Exp. 1a and 1b revealed that the swing leg effect and stepping behavior was moderated by turning magnitude. In Exp. 2, participants showed a preference for less costly, smaller turning magnitudes. Exp. 3 replicated the swing leg effect when motor costs were increased by means of ankle weights. In conclusion, these findings provide further evidence that value-based decisions during ongoing actions seem to be influenced by dynamically changing motor costs, thereby supporting the concept of 'embodied decision-making'.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 63%

Embodied decisions during walking

Grießbach

Raßbach

Herbort

et al. 2022

Journal of Neurophysiology

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“…The rating differences were obtained by increasing or decreasing the path widths and, thus, manipulating the cost of the imagined action required to reach the item. The higher liking to the lower-difficulty and short-time items at the end of the large path reveals that an action's cost is computed even before its execution [83][84][85]. Furthermore, these data show how the value of an item is influenced by the time required to reach it, even if the reaching is only imagined.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

The Cost of Imagined Actions in a Reward-Valuation Task

et al. 2022

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Growing evidence suggests that humans and other animals assign value to a stimulus based not only on its inherent rewarding properties, but also on the costs of the action required to obtain it, such as the cost of time. Here, we examined whether such cost also occurs for mentally simulated actions. Healthy volunteers indicated their subjective value for snack foods while the time to imagine performing the action to obtain the different stimuli was manipulated. In each trial, the picture of one food item and a home position connected through a path were displayed on a computer screen. The path could be either large or thin. Participants first rated the stimulus, and then imagined moving the mouse cursor along the path from the starting position to the food location. They reported the onset and offset of the imagined movements with a button press. Two main results emerged. First, imagery times were significantly longer for the thin than the large path. Second, participants liked significantly less the snack foods associated with the thin path (i.e., with longer imagery time), possibly because the passage of time strictly associated with action imagery discounts the value of the reward. Importantly, such effects were absent in a control group of participants who performed an identical valuation task, except that no action imagery was required. Our findings hint at the idea that imagined actions, like real actions, carry a cost that affects deeply how people assign value to the stimuli in their environment.

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“…We aimed to limit this specific cost by not displaying the hidden circle as feedback and showing the credits won or lost instead ( Figure 1 ). In addition, since the task depends on touching the screen to obtain clues, the cost of these motor actions might have influenced sampling behaviour ( Carland et al, 2019 ; Cisek and Kalaska, 2010 ; Morel et al, 2017 ; Pierrieau et al, 2021 ; Rangel and Hare, 2010 ; Scott, 2012 ). It is possible, for example, that SCI participants might be regarding reaching and touching the screen as less effortful than controls or assigning lower costs for motor precision.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hyperreactivity to uncertainty is a key feature of subjective cognitive impairment

Attaallah

Petitet

Slavkova

et al. 2022

eLife

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With an increasingly ageing global population, more people are presenting with concerns about their cognitive function, but not all have an underlying neurodegenerative diagnosis. Subjective cognitive impairment (SCI) is a common condition describing self-reported deficits in cognition without objective evidence of cognitive impairment. Many individuals with SCI suffer from depression and anxiety, which have been hypothesised to account for their cognitive complaints. Despite this association between SCI and affective features, the cognitive and brain mechanisms underlying SCI are poorly understood. Here, we show that people with SCI are hyperreactive to uncertainty and that this might be a key mechanism accounting for their affective burden. Twenty-seven individuals with SCI performed an information sampling task, where they could actively gather information prior to decisions. Across different conditions, SCI participants sampled faster and obtained more information than matched controls to resolve uncertainty. Remarkably, despite their 'urgent' sampling behaviour, SCI participants were able to maintain their efficiency. Hyperreactivity to uncertainty indexed by this sampling behaviour correlated with the severity of affective burden including depression and anxiety. Analysis of MRI resting functional connectivity revealed that SCI participants had stronger insular-hippocampal connectivity compared to controls, which also correlated with faster sampling. These results suggest that altered uncertainty processing is a key mechanism underlying the psycho-cognitive manifestations in SCI and implicate a specific brain network target for future treatment.

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Action Costs Rapidly and Automatically Interfere with Reward-Based Decision-Making in a Reaching Task

Abstract: Contributions: PMB, JFL and EP designed the study, interpreted the results, and wrote the manuscript ; EP performed data collection, data processing, and statistical analysis.

Cited by 16 publications

References 63 publications

Embodied decisions during walking

Embodied decisions during walking

The Cost of Imagined Actions in a Reward-Valuation Task

Hyperreactivity to uncertainty is a key feature of subjective cognitive impairment

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