Locus coeruleus neurons encode the subjective difficulty of triggering and executing actions.

ABSTRACT: The brain stem noradrenergic nucleus locus coeruleus (LC) is involved in various costly processes: arousal, stress, and attention. Recent work has pointed toward an implication in physical effort, and indirect evidence suggests that the LC could be also involved in cognitive effort. To assess the dynamic relation between LC activity, effort production, and difficulty, we recorded the activity of 193 LC single units in 5 monkeys performing 2 discounting tasks (a delay discounting task and a force discounting task), as well as a simpler target detection task where conditions were matched for difficulty and only differed in terms of sensory-motor processes. First, LC neurons displayed a transient activation both when monkeys initiated an action and when exerting force. Second, the magnitude o

SUBMITTER: Bornert P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8683033 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature