Scientists of the Indian Scientific Institute (IISC) in a new study examined how the expectation of reward affects the attention of human beings.
Many studies in the past have investigated how reward expectations affect attention and decision -making. “However, they have not been distinguished whether these processes are managed by the same or different regions and processes in the brain,” IISC said.
To solve this gap, SRIDHARANE Devarajan, Associate Professor at Neuroscience, and his doctoral student Ankita Sengupt, suggested an experiment to explore how two key components of attention modulate the remuneration: sensitivity (for example, the ability to visually identify the earliest fruit) and assumptions.
According to IISC, scientists often tried to tease the impact of reward on sensitivity and bias.
Two -piece cognitive task
Mr. Sridharan’s team carried out tests with 24 participants, each of whom performed a two -part cognitive task. The first part was tested on the effects of sensitivity reward. The participant deals with the screen showing two Gabor patches (smooth black and white stripes used in attention research), one on each side of the screen. After a very short pause (200 milliseconds) the patches could change and one (or both) orientation of the patch. Participants must report whether they have found a change in one of the two patches. For each test that they reported this change accurately, they received a cash reward.
IISC said that scientists strategically modified the rewards – the number of remuneration points was determined on the one hand, while the points were different on the other side; In other words, it may be higher or lower than the fixed side. “The participants would realize this during the task on the basis of points, which led them to focus and be more sensitive to minor changes on the side that would make them more rewards,” IISC said.
He also added that the second part was tested on the effects of distortion rewards.
The only difference in this case was that the points for reporting the possibility of “yes” (decision -making), given the possibility of “no” (decision -making on change) changes on the one hand; As before, this reward could be higher or lower than the fixed side. Here, the participants would be distorted to choose the “yes” option when it was more enriching than the “no” option and vice versa.
Eye movement, brain activity
During the tasks, scientists measured eye movements and brain activity of participants and quantified two components of attention.
In the first task where sensitivity was examined, the participants paid more attention and their view was attracted to the party associated with greater rewards. “However, their decision -making distortion has not changed, suggesting that only sensitivity was modulated in this task,” explains Mr. Sridharan. In addition, known brain signatures of attention, including electrical reactions and oscillations, signaled higher sensitivity.
During the second part of the task where distortion was examined, scientists noted that participants were more often (distortion) to choose the possibility (yes/no) with a higher expected reward. During this task, however, scientists were surprised when they noticed that none from the perspective of participants or brain patterns corresponded to those associated with attention.
Published – 5th August 2025 20:35
