Choking on the money: reward-based performance decrements are associated with midbrain activity
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A pernicious paradox in human motivation is the occasional reduced performance associated with tasks and situations that involve larger-than-average rewards. Three broad explanations that might account for such performance decrements are attentional competition (distraction theories), inhibition by conscious processes (explicit-monitoring theories), and excessive drive and arousal (overmotivation theories). Here, we report incentive-dependent performance decrements in humans in a reward-pursuit task; subjects were less successful in capturing a more valuable reward in a computerized maze. Concurrent functional magnetic resonance imaging revealed that increased activity in ventral midbrain, a brain area associated with incentive motivation and basic reward responding, correlated with both reduced number of captures and increased number of near-misses associated with imminent high rewards. These data cast light on the neurobiological basis of choking under pressure and are consistent with overmotivation accounts.
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Recent neuroimaging studies have implicated the VS in both detrimental and facilitating effects of incentives on performance.
“Recent neuroimaging studies have implicated the VS in these detrimental, as well as in the facilitating, effects of incentives on performance [39,40].”
From Contributions of the striatum to learning, motivation, and performance: an associative account (2012) · cites this paper as [40]
The opportunity to earn very large rewards can have a deleterious influence on performance, a phenomenon known as choking.
“the opportunity to earn very large rewards has also been shown to have a deleterious influence, a phenomenon known in the psychological literature as choking.”
From Contributions of the striatum to learning, motivation, and performance: an associative account (2012) · cites this paper as [40]
Findings implicating the ventral striatum in incentive-based performance can arguably be accounted for in terms of the role of this structure in the expression of Pavlovian conditioned responses.
“Findings implicating the ventral striatum in incentive-based performance [12,13,39,40] can arguably also be accounted for in terms of the role of this structure in the expression of Pavlovian conditioned responses.”
From Contributions of the striatum to learning, motivation, and performance: an associative account (2012) · cites this paper as [40]
In adults, a disengagement of reward-related circuitry supports better performance.
“On the other hand, in adults, a disengagement of reward-related circuitry supports better performance (Mobbs et al., 2009, O’Connor et al., 2012).”
From Effects of incentives, age, and behavior on brain activation during inhibitory control: a longitudinal fMRI study (2015) · cites this paper as Mobbs et al., 2009
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- Authors
- Mobbs, D., Hassabis, D., Seymour, B., Marchant, J. L., Weiskopf, N., Dolan, R. J., & Frith, C. D.
- Affiliations
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging (GB)
- Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, Functional Imaging Laboratory, University College London
- Corresponding author
- Mobbs, Dean
- Venue
- Psychological Science
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2009-08
- Volume
- 20
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 955-962
- ISSN
- 0956-7976 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-9280
- PMC
- PMC2931754
- OpenAlex
- W2148175602
- Cited by
- 103
- References
- 34
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 13 · 2013: 7 · 2012: 7
- FWCI
- 3.24
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Psychological Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- CaltechAUTHORS (California Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion)
- Max Planck Digital Library (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Cambridge University Engineering Department Publications Database (submittedVersion)
- MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion)
- MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Wellcome Trust (078865)
- Brain Research Trust
- National Research Foundation
- Danmarks Grundforskningsfond
- Medical Research Council
- Economic and Social Research Council (RES-538-28-1001)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › General Decision Sciences › Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics
- Keywords
- choking under pressure, reward magnitude, incentive motivation, ventral midbrain, performance decrement, attentional competition, arousal, near misses
- MeSH terms
- Achievement, Adult, Arousal, Attention, Brain Mapping, Corpus Striatum, Female, Frontal Lobe, Gyrus Cinguli, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Individuality, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Mesencephalon, Motion Perception, Motivation, Orientation, Oxygen, Pattern Recognition, Visual, Psychomotor Performance, Reward, Prefrontal Cortex, Maze Learning, Video Games, Young Adult
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