Open AccessPremotor and Motor Cortices Encode Reward
Author(s) -
Pavan Ramkumar,
Brian M Dekleva,
Sam Cooler,
Lee E. Miller,
Konrad Kording
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0160851
Subject(s) - neuroscience , premotor cortex , task (project management) , reward system , encode , psychology , motor cortex , primary motor cortex , cognitive psychology , dorsum , biology , stimulation , biochemistry , management , anatomy , gene , economics
Rewards associated with actions are critical for motivation and learning about the consequences of one’s actions on the world. The motor cortices are involved in planning and executing movements, but it is unclear whether they encode reward over and above limb kinematics and dynamics. Here, we report a categorical reward signal in dorsal premotor (PMd) and primary motor (M1) neurons that corresponds to an increase in firing rates when a trial was not rewarded regardless of whether or not a reward was expected. We show that this signal is unrelated to error magnitude, reward prediction error, or other task confounds such as reward consumption, return reach plan, or kinematic differences across rewarded and unrewarded trials. The availability of reward information in motor cortex is crucial for theories of reward-based learning and motivational influences on actions.