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Trial-to-trial Variability and Cortical Processing Depend on Recent Outcomes During Human Reinforcement Motor
Patrick Wiegel1, Meaghan Elizabeth Spedden1, Christina Ramsenthaler2
1Movement & Neuroscience, Department of Nutrition, Exercise & Sports, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Neuroscience
|August 15, 2022
Summary
Successful outcomes reinforce actions more than unsuccessful ones, influencing motor learning. Theta oscillations in the prefrontal cortex may track changes in movement variability during this process.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Science
- Motor Learning
Background:
- Past actions and outcomes guide future behavior in motor learning.
- Successful (S+) outcomes typically reinforce actions, while unsuccessful (S-) outcomes promote exploration.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how humans value previous actions differently after S+ versus S- outcomes.
- To explore the neural mechanisms underlying changes in motor variability based on outcome history.
Main Methods:
- Behavioral experiments measuring motor variability after different outcomes.
- Electroencephalography (EEG) to record brain activity, specifically theta band oscillations in the prefrontal cortex.
Main Results:
- Humans attribute different values to actions based on S+ vs. S- outcomes.
- Behavioral variability after S- outcomes is more sensitive to prior outcome history than after S+ outcomes.
- Theta band oscillations in the prefrontal cortex increase during consecutive outcome changes, suggesting cognitive control involvement.
Conclusions:
- Successful outcomes appear to 'overwrite' previous motor states more strongly than unsuccessful outcomes.
- Prefrontal cortex theta oscillations may encode shifts in movement variability states during reinforcement learning.
