title: Premotor and Motor Cortices Encode Reward.
abstract: 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.
authors: Sensorimotor Performance Program, Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Illinois, 60611, United States of America.|Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Northwestern University, Chicago, United States of America.
authors: Pavan
authors: P
authors: Ramkumar
authors: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University, Chicago, United States of America.|Department of Physiology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, United States of America.
authors: Brian
authors: B
authors: Dekleva
authors: Northwestern University Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program, Chicago, United States of America.
authors: Sam
authors: S
authors: Cooler
authors: Department of Physiology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, United States of America.
authors: Lee
authors: L
authors: Miller
authors: Sensorimotor Performance Program, Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Illinois, 60611, United States of America.|Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Northwestern University, Chicago, United States of America.
authors: Konrad
authors: K
authors: Kording
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D004566:Electrodes; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology; D016014:Linear Models; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D009042:Motivation; D009044:Motor Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D009474:Neurons / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012201:Reward