Allison Yarborough

EXSC555 002
Neural Control of Motor Behavior
Proposal 1

Experiencing a pressure situation can have a profound effect on human behavior

for better or worse, the latter leading to what are known as perceptual errors. An

example would be striking out with a runner on third and two outs or dropping the

wedding cake on the way to the venue. We know that neuroimaging has provided

evidence that the prefrontal cortex is responsible for error detection (Yu, 2015). A study

was done using fMRI to assess brain activity while participants played a game similar to

Pac-Man. In situations where there was pressure, subjects are aware of making more

errors. (Mobbs, 2009). Although we know the area of the brain where this occurs thanks

to fMRI, we do not know if the prefrontal cortex has a specific causal role in identifying

perceptual errors. The objective of the proposed study is to determine if the prefrontal

cortex has a causal relationship with error detection during performance of a visuomotor

activity. My hypothesis is that that that the prefrontal cortex is coordinated with neural

mechanisms responsible for perceptual error detection during visuomotor activities.

The central hypothesis will be tested using the following specific aim: Determine

whether disruption of the prefrontal cortex will affect identification of perceptual errors

during a visuomotor activity. Subjects will include healthy young adults with perfect or

corrected vision. To address the aim, subjects will preform the Object Hit & Avoid task

using the KINARM robot before and after inhibition of the prefrontal cortex using TMS.

Subjects will preform three trials with no inhibition and be asked to recall the number of

errors they made. Next, subjects will preform three more trials of the task with TMS

inhibition of the prefrontal cortex, again, being asked to recall the number of errors
made at the end of each trial. To address the aim, I will test the following hypotheses:

Hypothesis 1: The prefrontal cortex is not associated with neural mechanisms involved

in perception of errors and subjects will easily recall the number of errors made in all six

trials with and without TMS. Hypothesis 2: Before TMS inhibition subjects will be able to

recall errors made during trials of the task easily. Hypothesis 3: After TMS inhibition of

the prefrontal cortex subjects will have difficulty recalling the number of errors they

made during the trials.

 Citations

Mobbs, D., Hassabis, D., Seymour, B., Marchant, J. L., Weiskopf, N., Dolan, R. J., et al.

(2009). Choking on the money: reward-based performance decrements are

associated with midbrain activity. Psychol. Sci. 20, 955–962. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-

9280.2009.02399.x

Yu, R. (2015). Choking under pressure: The neuropsychological mechanisms of

incentive-induced performance decrements. Frontiers in Behavioral

Neuroscience,9. doi:10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00019