# Dopamine and a Bias for Proximal Action in Cognitive Effort

> **NIH NIH F32** · BROWN UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $67,446

## Abstract

Project Summary
Tasks with cognitive control demands are treated as subjectively costly. Individuals will avoid higher
demands, just like they avoid physical effort. Subjectively exaggerated costs sap motivation for
cognitive control, undermining task performance – an effect that has been examined in schizophrenia,
depression, Parkinson’s disease, and depression. Yet, despite widespread significance, little is known
about mechanisms tracking effort costs or mediating decisions to engage or persist with demanding
cognitive tasks. Numerous lines of evidence suggest that dopamine signaling, conveying momentary
incentive state, can offset effort costs and thus promote physical and cognitive effort. However, while
dopamine has been shown to enhance cognitive control, it also appears to, paradoxically, undermine
control by promoting impulsive action.
The purpose of this project is to test a hypothesis that can reconcile conflicting effects of dopamine on
cognitive control by unifying action selection mechanisms in the cognitive and physical domain.
Namely, I will test the hypothesis that dopamine biases benefit over cost information during action
selection, but it does so preferentially for “proximal” actions (those that are immediately suggested by
the environment). This hypothesis unifies domains in that physical actions are typically suggested by
the environment (e.g. levers at hand, or stairs underfoot), while control actions are not. Instead, in the
cognitive domain, control actions must compete with what the environment suggests, and will only win
out when control mechanisms respond quickly enough. An important corollary of the hypothesis is that
very high dopamine levels can amplify even small differences in proximity, thus potentiating proximal
“habits” over “controlled” actions and explaining why dopamine can sometimes undermine control
rather than promote it.
I will test this hypothesis by formalizing the principles in biologically-constrained neural network models,
and testing whether they can explain neurophysiological and behavioral dynamics in existing data sets.
In a series of experiments, I will measure and manipulate dopamine (with PET imaging and
pharmacological interventions) and measure and manipulate proximity (with eye gaze and task design),
to determine whether proximity and dopamine determine cognitive action selection as hypothesized.
Finally, I test whether the neural network models can predict performance in my experimental data
using a common set of parameters. A long-term benefit of this work will be to precisely articulate the
mechanisms by which dopamine can affect effortful cognitive action, and generate targets for
pharmacological interventions that promote desirable effortful action without also promoting impulsivity.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9998739
- **Project number:** 5F32MH115600-03
- **Recipient organization:** BROWN UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** John Andrew Westbrook
- **Activity code:** F32 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $67,446
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-09-01 → 2021-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9998739

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9998739, Dopamine and a Bias for Proximal Action in Cognitive Effort (5F32MH115600-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-07-15 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9998739. Licensed CC0.

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