Reward abundance interferes with error-based learning in a visuomotor adaptation task.

ABSTRACT: The brain rapidly adapts reaching movements to changing circumstances by using visual feedback about errors. Providing reward in addition to error feedback facilitates the adaptation but the underlying mechanism is unknown. Here, we investigate whether the proportion of trials rewarded (the 'reward abundance') influences how much participants adapt to their errors. We used a 3D multi-target pointing task in which reward alone is insufficient for motor adaptation. Participants (N = 423) performed the pointing task with feedback based on a shifted hand-position. On a proportion of trials we gave them rewarding feedback that their hand hit the target. Half of the participants only received this reward feedback. The other half also received feedback about endpoint errors. In different groups,

SUBMITTER: van der Kooij K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5841744 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature