Effort increases sensitivity to reward and loss magnitude in the human brain.

It is ecologically adaptive that the amount of effort invested to achieve a reward increases the relevance of the resulting outcome. Here, we investigated the effect of effort on activity in reward and loss processing brain areas by using functional magnetic resonance imaging. In total, 28 subjects were endowed with monetary rewards of randomly varying magnitude after performing arithmetic calculations that were either difficult (high effort), easy (low effort) or already solved (no effort). Subsequently, a forced donation took place, where a varying part of the endowment was transferred to a charity organization, causing a loss for the subject. Results show that reward magnitude positively modulates activity in reward-processing brain areas (subgenual anterior cingulate cortex and nucleus accumbens) only in the high effort condition. Furthermore, anterior insular activity was positively modulated by loss magnitude only after high effort. The results strongly suggest an increasing relevance of outcomes with increasing previous effort.

[1]  L. Lenchik.  Functional imaging , 2007, Annals of Biomedical Engineering.

[2]  B. Weiner.  Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Theories of Motivation from an Attributional Perspective , 2000 .

[3]  Peter Dayan,et al.  Temporal difference models describe higher-order learning in humans , 2004, Nature.

[4]  D. Stephens,et al.  The adaptive value of preference for immediacy: when shortsighted rules have farsighted consequences , 2001 .

[5]  Antonio Rangel,et al.  Neural computations associated with goal-directed choice , 2010, Current Opinion in Neurobiology.

[6]  N. Feather,et al.  Deservingness and emotions: Testing a structural model that relates discrete emotions to the perceived deservingness of positive or negative outcomes , 2011 .

[7]  Jin Fan,et al.  Common and distinct networks underlying reward valence and processing stages: A meta-analysis of functional neuroimaging studies , 2011, Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews.

[8]  T. Zentall,et al.  “work ethic” in pigeons: Reward value is directly related to the effort or time required to obtain the reward , 2000, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[9]  D. Kahneman,et al.  Functional Imaging of Neural Responses to Expectancy and Experience of Monetary Gains and Losses tasks with monetary payoffs , 2001 .

[10]  W. Schultz,et al.  Learning-Related Human Brain Activations Reflecting Individual Finances , 2007, Neuron.

[11]  Karl J. Friston,et al.  Dissociable Neural Responses in Human Reward Systems , 2000, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[12]  J. O'Doherty,et al.  Dissociating Valence of Outcome from Behavioral Control in Human Orbital and Ventral Prefrontal Cortices , 2003, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[13]  U. Kamil,et al.  Functional imaging , 2001, 2001 Conference Proceedings of the 23rd Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society.

[14]  W. Schultz.  Behavioral theories and the neurophysiology of reward. , 2006, Annual review of psychology.

[15]  Karl J. Friston,et al.  Dissociable Roles of Ventral and Dorsal Striatum in Instrumental Conditioning , 2004, Science.

[16]  M. Walton,et al.  Separate neural pathways process different decision costs , 2006, Nature Neuroscience.

[17]  Stanislas Dehaene,et al.  Arithmetic and the Brain This Review Comes from a Themed Issue on Cognitive Neuroscience Edited the Intraparietal Sulcus and Number Sense Number Sense in the Animal Brain , 2022 .

[18]  A. Tversky,et al.  Loss Aversion in Riskless Choice: A Reference-Dependent Model , 1991 .

[19]  R. Dolan,et al.  Dopamine-dependent prediction errors underpin reward-seeking behaviour in humans , 2006, Nature.

[20]  G. Marks,et al.  Luck versus Effort Attributions , 1981 .

[21]  Jean-Claude Darcheville,et al.  Preference for rewards that follow greater effort and greater delay , 2008, Learning & behavior.

[22]  Alexander W. Johnson,et al.  Greater effort boosts the affective taste properties of food , 2011, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

[23]  Edmund T. Rolls,et al.  Warm pleasant feelings in the brain , 2008, NeuroImage.

[24]  P. Tobler,et al.  Causes of social reward differences encoded in human brain. , 2012, Journal of neurophysiology.

[25]  Timothy E. J. Behrens,et al.  Neural Mechanisms of Foraging , 2012, Science.

[26]  Timothy Edward John Behrens,et al.  Effort-Based Cost–Benefit Valuation and the Human Brain , 2009, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[27]  Mathias Pessiglione,et al.  Separate Valuation Subsystems for Delay and Effort Decision Costs , 2010, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[28]  P. Falkai,et al.  The role of the human ventral striatum and the medial orbitofrontal cortex in the representation of reward magnitude – An activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies of passive reward expectancy and outcome processing , 2012, Neuropsychologia.

[29]  M. Lewis.  SOME NONDECREMENTAL EFFECTS OF EFFORT. , 1964, Journal of comparative and physiological psychology.

[30]  Camelia M. Kuhnen,et al.  The Neural Basis of Financial Risk Taking , 2005, Neuron.

[31]  Ulrich Mayr,et al.  Neural Responses to Taxation and Voluntary Giving Reveal Motives for Charitable Donations , 2007, Science.

[32]  K. Fliessbach,et al.  Social Comparison Affects Reward-Related Brain Activity in the Human Ventral Striatum , 2007, Science.

[33]  G. Pagnoni,et al.  Human Striatal Responses to Monetary Reward Depend On Saliency , 2004, Neuron.

[34]  Stephan F. Taylor,et al.  Decision-related loss: Regret and disappointment , 2009, NeuroImage.

[35]  Erich Kirchler,et al.  Origin of Endowments in Public Good Games: The Impact of Effort on Contributions , 2009 .

[36]  Carolyn H. Declerck,et al.  On feeling in control: A biological theory for individual differences in control perception , 2006, Brain and Cognition.

[37]  N. Chater,et al.  Choosing to Make an Effort: The Role of Striatum in Signaling Physical Effort of a Chosen Action , 2010, Journal of neurophysiology.

[38]  Karl J. Friston,et al.  Opponent appetitive-aversive neural processes underlie predictive learning of pain relief , 2005, Nature Neuroscience.

[39]  Jeffrey C. Cooper,et al.  Functional magnetic resonance imaging of reward prediction , 2005, Current opinion in neurology.

[40]  Samuel M. McClure,et al.  Time Discounting for Primary Rewards , 2007, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[41]  Joseph T. McGuire,et al.  Effort discounting in human nucleus accumbens , 2009, Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience.

[42]  M. Walton,et al.  Calculating the Cost of Acting in Frontal Cortex , 2007, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.