# Neural Mechanisms of Motivational Influences on Perceptual Decision-Making

> **NIH NIH F32** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY · 2021 · $19,560

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY. The ability to integrate sensory information over time to guide adaptive behavior is a
critical component of healthy cognition that is disrupted in psychiatric illnesses and neurological disorders.
Motivational salience is known to bias sensory processing and lead to systematic errors in perceptual decisions.
Past work has shown that errors can be driven by the enhancement of neural responses to motivationally
desirable perceptual features, but the neural mechanisms that underlie this enhancement are underspecified.
The locus coeruleus norepinephrine (LC-NE) system modulates neural responsivity to sensory stimuli, and is
well-positioned to mediate motivational effects on perceptual decisions. The proposed research will use novel
LC imaging methods and causal manipulation of neural activity using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to
investigate the role of the LC-NE system in mediating motivational biases in perceptual decision-making.
 Participants will perform a visual categorization task where they are motivated to see one percept over
another while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Prior work has faced significant
challenges in reliably measuring LC signal using fMRI due to its small size and individual variability in its location.
Aim 1 will thus use recently developed neuromelanin-sensitive imaging sequences to localize the LC in individual
participants and assess how LC activity tracks the enhancement or suppression of sensory representations
decoded using multivoxel pattern analysis (MVPA). The proposed study will test two hypothesized mechanisms
that allow the LC-NE system to selectively enhance the neural representation of desirable percepts: 1) amplifying
neural responses to desirable features via changes in neural gain and 2) suppressing neural responses to less
desirable features by increasing inhibition to sensory cortices via the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC).
Aim 2 will then use TMS to disrupt DLPFC function prior to participants performing the task in the MRI scanner.
If motivational effects on sensory representations are causally dependent on the DLPFC, exogenously perturbing
DLPFC will reduce or even eliminate these effects. These results will thus provide causal evidence that the
DLPFC modulates motivational biases in perceptual decision-making.
 The proposed research will address a fundamental gap in our understanding of how motivation shapes
sensory processing and perceptual decision-making. The knowledge gained from these studies will lay the
foundation for future work investigating the motivational bases of deficits in perceptual decision-making in
diseased brain states. The proposed research also affords training in LC imaging and TMS, innovative tools that
will allow the characterization and manipulation of neural circuits that underlie various motivation-cognition
interactions. Future work will use these methods to probe motivational biases in other cognitive domains...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10225892
- **Project number:** 1F32MH126466-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY
- **Principal Investigator:** Yuan Chang Leong
- **Activity code:** F32 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $19,560
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-04-01 → 2021-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10225892

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10225892, Neural Mechanisms of Motivational Influences on Perceptual Decision-Making (1F32MH126466-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10225892. Licensed CC0.

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