The Role of the Parietal Cortex in the Representation of Task-Reward Associations

Abstract

Rewards obtained from specific behaviors can and do change across time. To adapt to such conditions, humans need to represent and update associations between behaviors and their outcomes. Much previous work focused on how rewards affect the processing of specific tasks. However, abstract associations between multiple potential behaviors and multiple rewards are an important basis for adaptation as well. In this experiment, we directly investigated which brain areas represent associations between multiple tasks and rewards, using time-resolved multivariate pattern analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging data. Importantly, we were able to dissociate neural signals reflecting task-reward associations from those related to task preparation and reward expectation processes, variables that were often correlated in previous research. We hypothesized that brain regions involved in processing tasks and/or rewards will be involved in processing associations between them. Candidate areas included the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, which is involved in associating simple actions and rewards, and the parietal cortex, which has been shown to represent task rules and action values. Our results indicate that local spatial activation patterns in the inferior parietal cortex indeed represent task-reward associations. Interestingly, the parietal cortex flexibly changes its content of representation within trials. It first represents task-reward associations, later switching to process tasks and rewards directly. These findings highlight the importance of the inferior parietal cortex in associating behaviors with their outcomes and further show that it can flexibly reconfigure its function within single trials.

Reward boosts neural coding of task rules to optimise cognitive flexibility

“…Consistent with the results of previous fMRI decoding studies (Etzel et al, 2016;Qiao, Zhang, Chen, & Egner, 2017;Woolgar et al, 2011;Waskom et al, 2014;Wisniewski et al, 2015), RSA successfully tracked neural representations for task rule information. In using this approach, our results replicate the fMRI findings of Etzel et al (2016) in human electroencephalographic data, showing that high reward prospect increased average task coding prior to target onset, and that the difference in task coding between reward conditions was associated with improvements in cognitive performance.…”

Frequency‐specific age‐related decreased brain network diversity in cognitively healthy elderly: A whole‐brain data‐driven analysis

“…These findings indicated the frontal and temporal lobes illus- The age showed a significantly negative effect on the whole brain diversity, further regional diversity analysis revealed the significantly negative age effect distributed in the right inferior frontal gyrus, right amygdala, right hippocampus, left parahippocampal cortex, and left inferior parietal gyrus. The inferior parietal gyrus was thought to show a remarkable flexibility in task demands (Wisniewski, Reverberi, Momennejad, Kahnt, & Haynes, 2015). The amygdalahippocampus circuit has been reported to be related with response switching (Cohen, Elger, & Weber, 2008).…”

“…The inferior frontal gyrus was reported to be the key region related with earlier preparatory stages of set-shifting (Perianez et al, 2004). The inferior parietal gyrus was thought to show a remarkable flexibility in task demands (Wisniewski, Reverberi, Momennejad, Kahnt, & Haynes, 2015). Thus the decreased brain diversity in these regions might response to the declines of cognitive flexibility in elderly (Wecker, Kramer, Hallam, & Delis, 2005).…”

Motivated for near impossibility: How task type and reward modulate task enjoyment and the striatal activation for extremely difficult task

“…In fact, in the reward group, the expected value for monetary rewards was in conflict with the intrinsic value for the difficult task, and participants had to accommodate these opposing values. Supporting this idea, a previous fMRI study showed that the inferior parietal lobule is related to expected large future rewards at the cost of immediate losses (Tanaka et al, 2004), suggesting the possibility that this area is activated when different sources of rewards are in conflict and thus need to be integrated (see also Wisniewski et al, 2015).…”