Role of anticipated reward in cognitive behavioral control

Abstract

The lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC), which is important for higher cognitive activity, is also concerned with motivational operations; this is exemplified by its activity in relation to expectancy of rewards. In the LPFC, motivational information is integrated with cognitive information, as demonstrated by the enhancement of working-memory-related activity by reward expectancy. Such activity would be expected to induce changes in attention and, subsequently, to modify behavioral performance. Recently, the effects of motivation and emotion on neural activities have been examined in several areas of the brain in relation to cognitive-task performance. Of these areas, the LPFC seems to have the most important role in adaptive goal-directed behavior, by sending top-down attention-control signals to other areas of the brain.