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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 22, 2025

Studying Food Reward and Motivation in Humans

Studying Food Reward and Motivation in Humans

Published on: March 19, 2014

Reward invigorates isometric gripping actions.

Rachel M Marbaker¹, Ryan C Schmad¹, Razan A Al-Ghamdi²

¹Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, United States.

Journal of Neurophysiology

|March 17, 2025

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Prospect of reward invigorates isometric gripping, leading to faster reactions and increased force generation without added effort or variance. This demonstrates reward influences implicit motor control for effortful actions.

Keywords:

decision making effort grasping movement vigor speed-accuracy tradeoff

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A Modified Lean and Release Technique to Emphasize Response Inhibition and Action Selection in Reactive Balance

Published on: March 19, 2020

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Motor Control
Decision Making

Background:

Reward typically invigorates voluntary movements like reaching and saccades.
The impact of reward on implicit control of isometric actions, such as gripping, remains less understood.
Investigating reward's effect on effortful actions is crucial for understanding motor control and decision-making.

Purpose of the Study:

To determine if reward-related invigoration generalizes to isometric force gripping.
To identify implicit characteristics of gripping that change with reward prospect.
To explore how the brain balances reward and effort costs in isometric tasks.

Main Methods:

Participants (n=19) gripped a force transducer, with force mapped to cursor movement towards targets.
One target location was consistently rewarded per block, others were not.
Grip force, reaction time, and force generation dynamics were analyzed.

Main Results:

Participants reacted faster and generated force more rapidly and to a greater extent for rewarded targets.
Reward-driven gripping did not increase response variance or the rising force-time integral.
Findings suggest selective increases in effort mediate reward-based invigoration.

Conclusions:

Reward-related invigoration generalizes to isometric force gripping tasks.
The brain efficiently manages reward and effort trade-offs for faster reward acquisition.
Understanding reward's influence on gripping offers insights into decision-making and motor vigor.