Surprisingly, we did not observe a decreased sensitivity to reward value or a biased mapping between effort and reward in people with PD compared to controls. These results held when people with PD were ‘off’ dopamine medication.
Instead, PD increased the perception of effort relative to controls.
We tested if people with PD have:
1) a decreased perception of reward value using a reward utility task
2) an increased perception of effort using an isometric force matching task
3) a distorted mapping between effort and reward using decision-making task adapted from prior studies
The effort-reward trade-off is also important clinically as it has been proposed to underlie bradykinesia (low movement vigor) in PD.
But, there are at least 3 components of the trade-off that could plausibility explain these impairments. We tested each component in separate behavioral tasks.
All movements require a tradeoff between the effort required to move and the potential reward received for moving.
My favorite example of this trade-off is the way a child moves on Christmas morning compared to the morning of a big test at school.
We are hiring for a tenure track faculty position! Our Institute, part of Jefferson Moss-Magee Rehabilitation and Thomas Jefferson University, is seeking applicants with experience conducting research in human translational neuroscience & neurorehabilitation. https://ow.ly/Y7bk50Z2Q58
Post 6:
Overall, these results suggest that effort perception could be an important factor driving bradykinesia in PD.
This was a really fun project to work on with an awesome team: @aaronlwong.bsky.social, @amandastherrien.bsky.social and Alyssa Eyssalenne.
Thank you!
I am very excited to share this new pre-print that we just posted on bioRxiv!
We tested individual components of the effort-reward trade-off in people with Parkinson’s disease (PD) and neurotypical controls and found some surprising results!
#neuroskyence #Sensorimotor #Neurorehabilitation
Jonathan M Wood
Jonathan M Wood
Jonathan M Wood
Really excited to get stared on this project!
We are also looking for a postdoc to help with this project - the official job ad is coming soon, but please reach out in the meanwhile if interested! You'll get to do some behavioral testing and neuroimaging in people with stroke
Jonathan M Wood
Jefferson Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute
1/8 Paper! Using previously published data from 270 participants, we look at precision of reaches and hand proprioception in rotation adaptation:
doi.org/10.1186/s130...
Dr. Rachana Gangwani is providing a great overview Symposium 1 at #ASNR2026. The field has often assessed and treated motor and cognitive domains separately, but it's critical to recognize how these domains intersect and interact in order to advance our science and best serve patients.
