1. Neuroscience

Sensorimotor feedback loops are selectively sensitive to reward

  1. Olivier Codol  Is a corresponding author
  2. Mehrdad Kashefi
  3. Christopher J Forgaard
  4. Joseph M Galea
  5. J Andrew Pruszynski
  6. Paul L Gribble
  1. Western University, Canada
  2. University of Birmingham, United Kingdom
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.81325
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  1. Olivier Codol
  2. Mehrdad Kashefi
  3. Christopher J Forgaard
  4. Joseph M Galea
  5. J Andrew Pruszynski
  6. Paul L Gribble
(2023)
Sensorimotor feedback loops are selectively sensitive to reward
eLife 12:e81325.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.81325
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Abstract

Although it is well established that motivational factors such as earning more money for performing well improve motor performance, how the motor system implements this improvement remains unclear. For instance, feedback-based control, which uses sensory feedback from the body to correct for errors in movement, improves with greater reward. But feedback control encompasses many feedback loops with diverse characteristics such as the brain regions involved and their response time. Which specific loops drive these performance improvements with reward is unknown, even though their diversity makes it unlikely that they are contributing uniformly. We systematically tested the effect of reward on the latency (how long for a corrective response to arise?) and gain (how large is the corrective response?) of seven distinct sensorimotor feedback loops in humans. Only the fastest feedback loops were insensitive to reward, and the earliest reward-driven changes were consistently an increase in feedback gains, not a reduction in latency. Rather, a reduction of response latencies only tended to occur in slower feedback loops. These observations were similar across sensory modalities (vision and proprioception). Our results may have implications regarding feedback control performance in athletic coaching. For instance, coaching methodologies that rely on reinforcement or 'reward shaping' may need to specifically target aspects of movement that rely on reward-sensitive feedback responses.

Data availability

All behavioural data and analysis code are freely available online on the Open Science Framework website at https://osf.io/7t8yj/

The following data sets were generated
The following previously published data sets were used

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Olivier Codol

    Brain and Mind Institute, Western University, London, Canada
    For correspondence
    codol.olivier@gmail.com
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-0796-5457

  2. Mehrdad Kashefi

    Brain and Mind Institute, Western University, London, Canada
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-5981-5923

  3. Christopher J Forgaard

    Brain and Mind Institute, Western University, London, Canada
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  4. Joseph M Galea

    School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-0009-4049

  5. J Andrew Pruszynski

    Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Western University, London, Canada
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-0786-0081

  6. Paul L Gribble

    Brain and Mind Institute, Western University, London, Canada
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-1368-032X

Funding

Natural Science and Engineering Council of Canada (RGPIN-2018-05458)

  • Paul L Gribble

Canadian Institue of Health Research (PJT-156241)

  • Paul L Gribble

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Ethics

Human subjects: All participants signed a consent form to provide informed consent prior to the experimental session. Recruitment and data collection were done in accordance with the requirements of the research ethics board at Western University, Project ID # 115787.

Copyright

© 2023, Codol et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

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  1. Olivier Codol
  2. Mehrdad Kashefi
  3. Christopher J Forgaard
  4. Joseph M Galea
  5. J Andrew Pruszynski
  6. Paul L Gribble
(2023)
Sensorimotor feedback loops are selectively sensitive to reward
eLife 12:e81325.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.81325

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.81325

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