title: Neurocomputational account of how the human brain decides when to have a break.
abstract: No pain, no gain: cost-benefit trade-off has been formalized in classical decision theory to account for how we choose whether to engage effort. However, how the brain decides when to have breaks in the course of effort production remains poorly understood. We propose that decisions to cease and resume work are triggered by a cost evidence accumulation signal reaching upper and lower bounds, respectively. We developed a task in which participants are free to exert a physical effort knowing that their payoff would be proportional to their effort duration. Functional MRI and magnetoencephalography recordings conjointly revealed that the theoretical cost evidence accumulation signal was expressed in proprioceptive regions (bilateral posterior insula). Furthermore, the slopes and bounds of the accumulation process were adapted to the difficulty of the task and the money at stake. Cost evidence accumulation might therefore provide a dynamical mechanistic account of how the human brain maximizes benefits while preventing exhaustion.
authors: Motivation, Brain and Behavior Laboratory, Brain and Spine Institute, Hôpital de la Pitié-Salpêtrière, 75013 Paris, France.
authors: Florent
authors: F
authors: Meyniel
authors: Claire
authors: C
authors: Sergent
authors: Lionel
authors: L
authors: Rigoux
authors: Jean
authors: J
authors: Daunizeau
authors: Mathias
authors: M
authors: Pessiglione
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005602:France; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D015225:Magnetoencephalography; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D005082:Physical Exertion / Q000502:physiology*; D012201:Reward