Topic: reward size

Increasing the magnitude of an offered reward for an action can improve performance. However, performance can suffer when the payoff is exceptionally large, a phenomenon dubbed “choking under pressure.” What is the neural basis of choking under pressure, and what are the neural mechanisms whereby potential rewards affect motor performance? To study the interaction between rewards and movement, we recorded neural population activity in the motor cortex of rhesus monkeys as they performed a challenging delayed-reaching task, in which the reward available for a successful reach was pre-cued. Bot