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Reward-based invigoration of sequential reaching

View ORCID ProfileSebastian Sporn, View ORCID ProfileXiuli Chen, View ORCID ProfileJoseph M Galea
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.06.15.152876
Sebastian Sporn
1School of Psychology and Centre for Human Brain Health, University of Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK
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  • For correspondence: SSS748@bham.ac.uk
Xiuli Chen
1School of Psychology and Centre for Human Brain Health, University of Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK
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Joseph M Galea
1School of Psychology and Centre for Human Brain Health, University of Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK
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  • ORCID record for Joseph M Galea
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Abstract

Seeking reward is a powerful tool for shaping human behaviour. While it has been demonstrated that reward invigorates performance of simple movements, its effect on more complex sequential actions is less clear. In addition, it is unknown why reward-based improvements for discrete actions are transient, i.e. performance gains are lost once reward is removed, but appear long lasting for sequential actions. We show across three experiments that reward invigorates sequential reaching performance. Driven by a reward-based increase in speed, movements also exhibited greater coarticulation, smoothness and a closer alignment to a minimum jerk trajectory. Critically, these performance gains were maintained across multiple days even after the removal of reward. We propose that coarticulation, the blending together of sub-movements into a single continuous action, provides a mechanism by which reward can invigorate sequential performance whilst also increasing efficiency. This change in efficiency appears essential for the retention of reward-based improvements in motor behaviour.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
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Posted June 16, 2020.
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Reward-based invigoration of sequential reaching
Sebastian Sporn, Xiuli Chen, Joseph M Galea
bioRxiv 2020.06.15.152876; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.06.15.152876
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Reward-based invigoration of sequential reaching
Sebastian Sporn, Xiuli Chen, Joseph M Galea
bioRxiv 2020.06.15.152876; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.06.15.152876

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