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Updated: Jun 10, 2026
09:52
Measuring and Manipulating Functionally Specific Neural Pathways in the Human Motor System with Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
Published on: February 23, 2020
Motor preparatory activity in posterior parietal cortex is modulated by subjective absolute value
Asha Iyer1, Axel Lindner, Igor Kagan
1Division of Biology, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, United States of America.
Plos Biology
|August 7, 2010
Summary
Monetary consequences shape brain activity during motor preparation. Neural activity reflects the absolute value of potential gains or losses, influenced by subjective performance beliefs.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Decision Neuroscience
Background:
- Optimal decision-making requires appraising the consequences of actions, including potential success or failure.
- Understanding how the brain represents and integrates monetary value during action preparation is crucial for explaining goal-directed behavior.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the influence of monetary consequences on neural representations of motor preparation.
- To determine how expected value and absolute value modulate brain activity during a visuomotor task.
Main Methods:
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to scan human brain activity.
- Subjects performed a complex spatial visuomotor task with varying reward context cues (potential gain/loss).
Main Results:
- fMRI activity in reward structures correlated with the expected value of trial outcomes.
- Motor preparatory activity in posterior parietal and premotor cortex was highest under high absolute value conditions (large gains or losses).
- Preparatory activity was modulated by subjective performance estimates, with high gains boosting activity in high performers and high losses in low performers.
Conclusions:
- Neural activity preceding goal-directed actions incorporates the absolute value of potential outcomes.
- Subjective performance appraisals, rather than objective outcomes, significantly influence this neural valuation process.
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