title: How self-determined choice facilitates performance: a key role of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex.
abstract: Recent studies have documented that self-determined choice does indeed enhance performance. However, the precise neural mechanisms underlying this effect are not well understood. We examined the neural correlates of the facilitative effects of self-determined choice using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Participants played a game-like task involving a stopwatch with either a stopwatch they selected (self-determined-choice condition) or one they were assigned without choice (forced-choice condition). Our results showed that self-determined choice enhanced performance on the stopwatch task, despite the fact that the choices were clearly irrelevant to task difficulty. Neuroimaging results showed that failure feedback, compared with success feedback, elicited a drop in the vmPFC activation in the forced-choice condition, but not in the self-determined-choice condition, indicating that negative reward value associated with the failure feedback vanished in the self-determined-choice condition. Moreover, the vmPFC resilience to failure in the self-determined-choice condition was significantly correlated with the increased performance. Striatal responses to failure and success feedback were not modulated by the choice condition, indicating the dissociation between the vmPFC and striatal activation pattern. These findings suggest that the vmPFC plays a unique and critical role in the facilitative effects of self-determined choice on performance.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading RG6 6AL, UK.
authors.forename: Kou
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Murayama
authors.affiliation: Tamagawa University Brain Science Institute, Tokyo 194-8610, Japan.
authors.forename: Madoka
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Matsumoto
authors.affiliation: Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Tokyo 102-8471, Japan.
authors.forename: Keise
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Izuma
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Sciences, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 153-8902, Japan.
authors.forename: Ayaka
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sugiura
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical and Social Sciences in Psychology, University of Rochester, Meliora Hall, Rochester, NY 14627, USA.
authors.forename: Richard M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Ryan
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical and Social Sciences in Psychology, University of Rochester, Meliora Hall, Rochester, NY 14627, USA.
authors.forename: Edward L
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Deci
authors.affiliation: Tamagawa University Brain Science Institute, Tokyo 194-8610, Japan.
authors.forename: Kenji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Matsumoto
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D000068156:Formative Feedback; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D012201:Reward; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: autonomy; intrinsic motivation; orbitofrontal cortex; striatum; value representation