Attribution of sensory prediction error to perception of muscle fatigue

Abstract

Sensory prediction-error is vital to discriminating whether sensory inputs are caused externally or are the consequence of self-action, thereby contributing to a stable perception of the external world and building sense of agency. However, it remains unexplored whether prediction error of self-action is also used to estimate the internal body condition. To address this point, we examined whether prediction error affects the perceived intensity of muscle fatigue. Participants evaluated fatigue while maintaining repetitive finger movements. To provide prediction error, we inserted a temporal delay into online visual feedback of self-movements. The results show that the subjective rating of muscle fatigue significantly increased under the delayed visual feedback, suggesting that prediction error enhances the perception of muscle fatigue. Furthermore, we introduced visual feedback that preceded actual finger movements to test whether the temporal direction of the mismatch is crucial in estimating muscle fatigue. We found that perceived fatigue was significantly weaker with preceding visual feedback compared to normal feedback, showing that the perception of muscle fatigue is affected by the signed prediction-error. Our findings support the idea that the brain flexibly attributes prediction errors to a self-origin with keeping sense of agency, or external origin by considering contexts and error characteristics.

Computational mechanisms underlying the dynamics of physical and cognitive fatigue

“…In addition, people avoid risks in relation to effort 20,63 , and are more averse to physical effort levels close to their capacity, where the probability of success decreases 33,57 . Further, errors in physical tasks have been associated with perception of fatigue in the physical domain 18 and in turn physical effort can influence RL processes 64 . Thus, whilst the studies differed in terms of the nature of the demanding task, effort-driven and error-driven processes are likely to underlie fatigue and effort-based decisions regardless of whether it is physical or cognitive in nature.…”

“…Increases in both recoverable and unrecoverable fatigue similarly increase the cost of effort and reduce the value placed on rewards that require effort 3,16 . However, most tasks that take self-reported fatigue ratings only do so after extended periods of exertion 3,8,18 , which does not offer the temporal resolution required to examine the computational mechanisms that govern momentary fluctuations in fatigue. Indeed, most experiments treat the effects of fatigue as a confound to avoid in an experimental design, do not account for it, or only include time on task as a regressor 3 .…”

Introspective access or retrospective inference? Mind wandering reports are shaped by performance feedback

“…In Experiment 1, we manipulated perceived performance with sham (random) performance feedback. In Experiment 2, we introduced a surreptitious delay in the onset of a subset of response targets in the vMRT; we expected target delays would produce a prediction error (Ito et al, 2022), which participants would perceive as a premature response (error). On the basis of our inference hypothesis, we expected that participants would be more likely to self-report MW after misperceiving that they had made an error.…”