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Rapid visuomotor responses reflect value-based decisions

Published version
Peer-reviewed

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Authors

carroll, timothy 
McNamee, daniel 
Ingram, james 
Wolpert, Daniel Mark 

Abstract

Cognitive decision making is known to be sensitive to the values of potential options, that is the probability and size of rewards associated with different choices. Here, we examine whether rapid motor responses to perturbations of visual feedback about movement, which mediate low-level and involuntary feedback control loops, reflect computations associated with high-level value-based decision making. In three experiments involving human participants, we varied the value associated with different potential targets for reaching movements by controlling the distributions of rewards across the targets (experiment 1), the probability with which each target could be specified (experiment 2), or both (experiment 3). We found that the size of rapid and involuntary feedback responses to movement perturbations was strongly influenced by the relative value between targets. A statistical model of relative value that includes a term for risk sensitivity provided the best fit to the visuomotor response data, illustrating that feedback control policies are biased to favour more frequent task success at the expense of the overall extrinsic reward accumulated through movement. Importantly however, the regulation of rapid feedback responses was associated with successful pursuit of high-value task outcomes. This implies that when we move, the brain specifies a set of feedback control gains that enable low-level motor areas not only to generate efficient and accurate movement, but also to rapidly and adaptively respond to evolving sensory information in a manner consistent with value-based decision making.

Description

Keywords

decision-making, involuntary movement, reflex, value-based choice, Adolescent, Adult, Decision Making, Feedback, Sensory, Female, Humans, Male, Models, Neurological, Psychomotor Performance, ROC Curve, Reward, Young Adult

Journal Title

Journal of Neuroscience

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1529-2401
1529-2401

Volume Title

1934

Publisher

Society for Neuroscience
Sponsorship
Wellcome Trust (097803/Z/11/Z)
Wellcome Trust (110257/Z/15/Z)
The authors thank Max Donelan for feedback on the manuscript and note funding support from the Australian Research Council (FT120100391), the Wellcome Trust and the Royal Society Noreen Murray Professorship in Neurobiology (to D.M.W.)