08:30 - 10:00
Tue-H2-Talk 4--38
Tue-Talk 4
Room: H2
Chair/s:
Kerstin Fröber, David Dignath
Neural underpinnings of effort evaluation and allocation
Tue-H2-Talk 4-3805
Presented by: Nanne Kukkonen
Nanne KukkonenSenne BraemJoshua O. EayrsStefania MattioniMengqiao ChaiTabitha S. SteendamRuth Krebs
Ghent University
Mental effort is often conceptualised as a decision-making problem: the inherent cost of effort is weighed against the incentives to expend effort. In most paradigms, effort evaluation is not separated from the preparation where the negative signals of effort evaluation are translated into positive signals of effort allocation to ensure successful task performance. For example, in effort and reward cuing studies, a high task demand can lead to an upregulation of effort, as indexed by the recruitment of neural structures underlying effortful control, especially when rewards are expected. In an fMRI study (n = 40), we explored effort as a dynamic process involving both evaluation of reward and effort information, and allocation of resources based on this information. Participants completed a cued cognitive control task in which incentive level and demand level were combined in a factorial manner. A trial began with an ‘evaluation cue’ that informed the participants of the condition, prompting evaluative processing of the upcoming effort condition. This cue was succeeded by an ‘allocation cue’, which served to signal the preparation phase for the upcoming task. Neural activity was assessed during the evaluation phase and the allocation phase in predefined regions of interest. These regions, typically implicated in motivated effort paradigms, supported demand-related processing in the evaluation phase, while encoding reward information in the allocation phase. By conceptualising effort as a multi-stage, dynamic process, we were able to tease apart different stages and neural signatures of mental effort in evaluative and attentional control networks.
Keywords: effort, motivation, fMRI, control