Marti Marca, AngelaDeco, GustavoCos Aguilera, Ignasi2021-01-142021-01-142020Marti-Marca A, Deco G, Cos I. Visual-reward driven changes of movement during action execution. Sci Rep. 2020 Sep 23;10:15527. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-72220-22045-2322http://hdl.handle.net/10230/46171Motor decision-making is often described as a sequential process, beginning with the assessment of available options and leading to the execution of a selected movement. While this view is likely to be accurate for decisions requiring significant deliberation, it would seem unfit for choices between movements in dynamic environments. In this study, we examined whether and how non-selected motor options may be considered post-movement onset. We hypothesized that a change in reward at any point in time implies a dynamic reassessment of options, even after an initial decision has been made. To test this, we performed a decision-making task in which human participants were instructed to execute a reaching movement from an origin to a rectangular target to attain a reward. Reward depended on arrival precision and on the specific distribution of reward presented along the target. On a third of trials, we changed the initial reward distribution post-movement onset. Our results indicated that participants frequently change their initially selected movements when a change is associated with an increase in reward. This process occurs quicker than overall, average reaction times. Finally, changes in movement are not only dependent on reward but also on the current state of the motor apparatus.application/pdfengThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Visual-reward driven changes of movement during action executioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-72220-2DecisionMotor controlinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess