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Task Difficulty Regulates How Conscious and Unconscious Monetary Rewards Boost the Performance of Working Memory: An Event-Related Potential Study

The performance of working memory can be improved by the corresponding high-value vs. low-value rewards consciously or unconsciously. However, whether conscious and unconscious monetary rewards boosting the performance of working memory is regulated by the difficulty level of working memory task is...

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Autores principales: Xu, Shiyang, Qi, Senqing, Duan, Haijun, Zhang, Juan, Akioma, Miriam, Gao, Fei, Wu, Anise M. S., Yuan, Zhen
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8802761/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35111000
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnsys.2021.716961
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author Xu, Shiyang
Qi, Senqing
Duan, Haijun
Zhang, Juan
Akioma, Miriam
Gao, Fei
Wu, Anise M. S.
Yuan, Zhen
author_facet Xu, Shiyang
Qi, Senqing
Duan, Haijun
Zhang, Juan
Akioma, Miriam
Gao, Fei
Wu, Anise M. S.
Yuan, Zhen
author_sort Xu, Shiyang
collection PubMed
description The performance of working memory can be improved by the corresponding high-value vs. low-value rewards consciously or unconsciously. However, whether conscious and unconscious monetary rewards boosting the performance of working memory is regulated by the difficulty level of working memory task is unknown. In this study, a novel paradigm that consists of a reward-priming procedure and N-back task with differing levels of difficulty was designed to inspect this complex process. In particular, both high-value and low-value coins were presented consciously or unconsciously as the reward cues, followed by the N-back task, during which electroencephalogram signals were recorded. It was discovered that the high-value reward elicited larger event-related potential (ERP) component P3 along the parietal area (reflecting the working memory load) as compared to the low-value reward for the less difficult 1-back task, no matter whether the reward was unconsciously or consciously presented. In contrast, this is not the case for the more difficult 2-back task, in which the difference in P3 amplitude between the high-value and low-value rewards was not significant for the unconscious reward case, yet manifested significance for the conscious reward processing. Interestingly, the results of the behavioral analysis also exhibited very similar patterns as ERP patterns. Therefore, this study demonstrated that the difficulty level of a task can modulate the influence of unconscious reward on the performance of working memory.
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spelling pubmed-88027612022-02-01 Task Difficulty Regulates How Conscious and Unconscious Monetary Rewards Boost the Performance of Working Memory: An Event-Related Potential Study Xu, Shiyang Qi, Senqing Duan, Haijun Zhang, Juan Akioma, Miriam Gao, Fei Wu, Anise M. S. Yuan, Zhen Front Syst Neurosci Systems Neuroscience The performance of working memory can be improved by the corresponding high-value vs. low-value rewards consciously or unconsciously. However, whether conscious and unconscious monetary rewards boosting the performance of working memory is regulated by the difficulty level of working memory task is unknown. In this study, a novel paradigm that consists of a reward-priming procedure and N-back task with differing levels of difficulty was designed to inspect this complex process. In particular, both high-value and low-value coins were presented consciously or unconsciously as the reward cues, followed by the N-back task, during which electroencephalogram signals were recorded. It was discovered that the high-value reward elicited larger event-related potential (ERP) component P3 along the parietal area (reflecting the working memory load) as compared to the low-value reward for the less difficult 1-back task, no matter whether the reward was unconsciously or consciously presented. In contrast, this is not the case for the more difficult 2-back task, in which the difference in P3 amplitude between the high-value and low-value rewards was not significant for the unconscious reward case, yet manifested significance for the conscious reward processing. Interestingly, the results of the behavioral analysis also exhibited very similar patterns as ERP patterns. Therefore, this study demonstrated that the difficulty level of a task can modulate the influence of unconscious reward on the performance of working memory. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-01-13 /pmc/articles/PMC8802761/ /pubmed/35111000 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnsys.2021.716961 Text en Copyright © 2022 Xu, Qi, Duan, Zhang, Akioma, Gao, Wu and Yuan. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Systems Neuroscience
Xu, Shiyang
Qi, Senqing
Duan, Haijun
Zhang, Juan
Akioma, Miriam
Gao, Fei
Wu, Anise M. S.
Yuan, Zhen
Task Difficulty Regulates How Conscious and Unconscious Monetary Rewards Boost the Performance of Working Memory: An Event-Related Potential Study
title Task Difficulty Regulates How Conscious and Unconscious Monetary Rewards Boost the Performance of Working Memory: An Event-Related Potential Study
title_full Task Difficulty Regulates How Conscious and Unconscious Monetary Rewards Boost the Performance of Working Memory: An Event-Related Potential Study
title_fullStr Task Difficulty Regulates How Conscious and Unconscious Monetary Rewards Boost the Performance of Working Memory: An Event-Related Potential Study
title_full_unstemmed Task Difficulty Regulates How Conscious and Unconscious Monetary Rewards Boost the Performance of Working Memory: An Event-Related Potential Study
title_short Task Difficulty Regulates How Conscious and Unconscious Monetary Rewards Boost the Performance of Working Memory: An Event-Related Potential Study
title_sort task difficulty regulates how conscious and unconscious monetary rewards boost the performance of working memory: an event-related potential study
topic Systems Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8802761/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35111000
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnsys.2021.716961
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