Relationship between reward-related brain activity and opportunities to sit.

The present study tested whether energy-minimizing behaviors evoke reward-related brain activity that promotes the repetition of these behaviors via reinforcement learning processes. Fifty-eight healthy young adults in a standing position performed a task where they could earn a reward either by sitting down or squatting while undergoing electroencephalographic (EEG) recording. Reward-prediction errors were quantified as the amplitude of the EEG-derived reward positivity.

A win-win situation: Does familiarity with a social robot modulate feedback monitoring and learning?

Social species rely on the ability to modulate feedback-monitoring in social contexts to adjust one's actions and obtain desired outcomes. When being awarded positive outcomes during a gambling task, feedback-monitoring is attenuated when strangers are rewarded, as less value is assigned to the awarded outcome. This difference in feedback-monitoring can be indexed by an event-related potential (ERP) component known as the Reward Positivity (RewP), whose amplitude is enhanced when receiving positive feedback.

Two Interventions Decrease Anxiety Sensitivity Among High Anxiety Sensitive Women: Could Physical Exercise Be the Key?

A brief group-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), with running as an interoceptive exposure (IE) component, was effective in reducing anxiety sensitivity (AS) levels in undergraduate women (Watt, Stewart, Lefaivre, & Uman, 2006). This study investigated whether the CBT/IE intervention would result in decreases in AS and emotional distress that would be maintained over 14 weeks. Female undergraduates, high ( = 81) or low ( = 73) in AS, were randomized to 3-day CBT plus forty-two 10-min running IE trials ( = 83) or 3-day health education control (HEC) with interactive discussions and problem solving on exercise, nutrition, and sleep ( = 71).

Using brain potentials to understand prism adaptation: the error-related negativity and the P300.

Prism adaptation (PA) is both a perceptual-motor learning task as well as a promising rehabilitation tool for visuo-spatial neglect (VSN)-a spatial attention disorder often experienced after stroke resulting in slowed and/or inaccurate motor responses to contralesional targets. During PA, individuals are exposed to prism-induced shifts of the visual-field while performing a visuo-guided reaching task. After adaptation, with goggles removed, visuomotor responding is shifted to the opposite direction of that initially induced by the prisms.

Running as Interoceptive Exposure for Decreasing Anxiety Sensitivity: Replication and Extension.

A brief, group cognitive behavioural therapy with running as the interoceptive exposure (IE; exposure to physiological sensations) component was effective in decreasing anxiety sensitivity (AS; fear of arousal sensations) levels in female undergraduates (Watt et al., Anxiety and Substance Use Disorders: The Vicious Cycle of Comorbidity, 201-219, 2008). Additionally, repeated exposure to running resulted in decreases in cognitive (i.

The role of visual processing in motor learning and control: Insights from electroencephalography.

Traditionally our understanding of goal-directed action been derived from either behavioral findings or neuroanatomically derived imaging (i.e., fMRI).

How we learn to make decisions: rapid propagation of reinforcement learning prediction errors in humans.

Our ability to make decisions is predicated upon our knowledge of the outcomes of the actions available to us. Reinforcement learning theory posits that actions followed by a reward or punishment acquire value through the computation of prediction errors-discrepancies between the predicted and the actual reward. A multitude of neuroimaging studies have demonstrated that rewards and punishments evoke neural responses that appear to reflect reinforcement learning prediction errors [e.

Mind wandering and motor control: off-task thinking disrupts the online adjustment of behavior.

Mind wandering episodes have been construed as periods of "stimulus-independent" thought, where our minds are decoupled from the external sensory environment. In two experiments, we used behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) measures to determine whether mind wandering episodes can also be considered as periods of "response-independent" thought, with our minds disengaged from adjusting our behavioral outputs. In the first experiment, participants performed a motor tracking task and were occasionally prompted to report whether their attention was "on-task" or "mind wandering.

Reward positivity elicited by predictive cues.

A recent theory holds that a component of the human event-related brain potential called the reward positivity reflects a reward prediction error signal. We investigated this idea in gambling-like task in which, on each trial, a visual stimulus predicted a subsequent rewarding or nonrewarding outcome with 80% probability. Consistent with earlier results, we found that the reward positivity was larger to unexpected than to expected outcomes.

Observational practice benefits are limited to perceptual improvements in the acquisition of a novel coordination skill.

There is disagreement about the effectiveness of observational practice for the acquisition of novel coordination skills and the type of processes involved in observation of novel movements. In this study, we examined learning of a bimanual 90 degrees phase offset through comparisons of three groups; physical practice, observational practice and no practice (n = 12/group). Groups were compared before and after practice on perception and production scans of the practised pattern.

The amount of practice really matters: specificity of practice may be valid only after sufficient practice.

Studies investigating the specificity hypothesis have not always demonstrated that reliance on a specific source offeedback increases with practice. The goal of the present study was to address this inconsistency by having participants practice a throwing task with or without vision at incremental levels (10, 50, 100, or 200 acquisition trials). Following acquisition, all participants in the present experiment performed 10 trials in a no-vision transfer condition.

Learning to become an expert: reinforcement learning and the acquisition of perceptual expertise.

To elucidate the neural mechanisms underlying the development of perceptual expertise, we recorded ERPs while participants performed a categorization task. We found that as participants learned to discriminate computer generated "blob" stimuli, feedback modulated the amplitude of the error-related negativity (ERN)-an ERP component thought to reflect error evaluation within medial-frontal cortex. As participants improved at the categorization task, we also observed an increase in amplitude of an ERP component associated with object recognition (the N250).

Electroencephalographic correlates of target and outcome errors.

Different neural systems underlie the evaluation of different types of errors. Recent electroencephalographic evidence suggests that outcome errors -- errors indicating the failure to achieve a movement goal -- are evaluated within medial-frontal cortex (Krigolson and Holroyd 2006, 2007a, b). Conversely, evidence from a variety of manual aiming studies has demonstrated that target errors -- discrepancies between the actual and desired motor command brought about by an unexpected change in the movement environment -- are mediated within posterior parietal cortex (e.

Hierarchical error processing: different errors, different systems.

Error processing during motor control involves the evaluation of "high-level" errors (i.e., failures to meet a system goal) by a frontal system involving anterior cingulate cortex and the evaluation of "low-level" errors (i.

Predictive information and error processing: the role of medial-frontal cortex during motor control.

We have recently provided evidence that an error-related negativity (ERN), an ERP component generated within medial-frontal cortex, is elicited by errors made during the performance of a continuous tracking task (O.E. Krigolson & C.