Dopamine Surprise Gives Human Movements a Measurable Speed Boost
Unexpected rewards can make people move faster within a fraction of a second, revealing how closely motivation and movement are linked in the brain. In a joystick-based reaching task, participants accelerated toward targets that offered higher reward probability, and their movements gained an extra burst of speed when a low-probability reward appeared unexpectedly.
The timing of this change matched classic dopamine reward-prediction signals, suggesting that movement vigor reflects the brain’s internal value computations. Over time, strings of positive or negative outcomes also shifted overall movement speed, showing that recent experience continuously recalibrates how energetically we act. These findings point to movement as a potential noninvasive marker for tracking dopamine function in conditions such as Parkinson’s disease and depression.
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The timing of this change matched classic dopamine reward-prediction signals, suggesting that movement vigor reflects the brain’s internal value computations. Over time, strings of positive or negative outcomes also shifted overall movement speed, showing that recent experience continuously recalibrates how energetically we act. These findings point to movement as a potential noninvasive marker for tracking dopamine function in conditions such as Parkinson’s disease and depression.
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