How Self-Determined Choice Facilitates Performance: A Key Role of the Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex
Open accessAbstract
Recent studies have documented that self-determined choice does indeed enhance performance. However, the precise neural mechanisms underlying this effect are not well understood. We examined the neural correlates of the facilitative effects of self-determined choice using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Participants played a game-like task involving a stopwatch with either a stopwatch they selected (self-determined-choice condition) or one they were assigned without choice (forced-choice condition). Our results showed that self-determined choice enhanced performance on the stopwatch task, despite the fact that the choices were clearly irrelevant to task difficulty. Neuroimaging results showed that failure feedback, compared with success feedback, elicited a drop in the vmPFC activation in the forced-choice condition, but not in the self-determined-choice condition, indicating that negative reward value associated with the failure feedback vanished in the self-determined-choice condition. Moreover, the vmPFC resilience to failure in the self-determined-choice condition was significantly correlated with the increased performance. Striatal responses to failure and success feedback were not modulated by the choice condition, indicating the dissociation between the vmPFC and striatal activation pattern. These findings suggest that the vmPFC plays a unique and critical role in the facilitative effects of self-determined choice on performance.
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There are now a more substantial set of findings in which choice, perceived control, and other forms of autonomy support produce superior performance and/or learning than control or yoked conditions without choice.
“Further, as the autonomy studies suggest, there are now a more substantial set of findings in which choice, perceived control, and other forms of autonomy support produce superior performance and/or learning than do control or yoked conditions without choice (see also Murayama, Matsumoto, Izuma, Sugiura, Ryan, Deci et al., 2015;Patall, Cooper, & Robinson, 2008).”
From Optimizing performance through intrinsic motivation and attention for learning: The OPTIMAL theory of motor learning (2016) · cites this paper as Murayama, Matsumoto, Izuma, Sugiura, Ryan, Deci et al., 2015
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- Authors
- Murayama, K., Matsumoto, M., Izuma, K., Sugiura, A., Ryan, R. M., Deci, E. L., & Matsumoto, K.
- Affiliations
- University of Reading (GB)
- Tamagawa University (JP)
- California Institute of Technology (US)
- The University of Tokyo (JP)
- University of Rochester (US)
- Corresponding author
- Murayama, K.
- Venue
- Cerebral Cortex
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2013-12-02
- Volume
- 25
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 1241-1251
- ISSN
- 1047-3211 (ISSN-L)
- 1460-2199
- OpenAlex
- W2171160671
- Cited by
- 143
- References
- 69
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 14 · 2020: 18 · 2019: 15 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 2 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 2.73
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Cerebral Cortex (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- White Rose Research Online (University of Leeds, The University of Sheffield, University of York) (submittedVersion)
- CaltechAUTHORS (California Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion)
- Research Bank (Australian Catholic University) (submittedVersion)
- ePrints Soton (University of Southampton) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung
- Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (24240061, 24120717)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Free Will and Agency
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Keywords
- forced choice, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, task performance, feedback processing, failure feedback, striatum, reward value, motivation, neural correlates of choice
- MeSH terms
- Formative Feedback, Adolescent, Adult, Choice Behavior, Decision Making, Female, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Psychomotor Performance, Reward, Prefrontal Cortex, Young Adult
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