Differentiating Motivational from Affective Influence of Performance-contingent Reward on Cognitive Control: The Wanting Component Enhances Both Proactive and Reactive Control

- Proactive and reactive controls were assessed during an AX CPT task.
- Motivational effects were dissociated from affective effects.
- Wanting improves proactive control on a sustained manner.
- Wanting transiently enhances reactive control.
- Proactive and reactive control can be increased at the same time.

Positive affect strongly modulates goal-directed behaviors and cognitive control mechanisms. It often results from the presence of a pleasant stimulus in the environment, whether that stimulus appears unpredictably or as a consequence of a particular behavior. The influence of positive affect linked to a random pleasant stimulus differs from the influence of positive affect resulting from performance-contingent pleasant stimuli. However, the mechanisms by which the performance contingency of pleasant stimuli modulates the influence of positive affect on cognitive control mechanisms have not been elucidated. Here, we tested the hypothesis that these differentiated effects are the consequence of the activation of the motivational “wanting” component specifically under performance contingency conditions. To that end, we directly compared the effects on cognitive control of pleasant stimuli (a monetary reward) attributed in a performance contingent manner, and of random pleasant stimuli (positive picture) not related to performance, during an AX-CPT task. Both proactive and reactive modes of control were increased specifically by performance contingency, as reflected by faster reaction times and larger amplitude of the CNV and P3a components. Our findings advance our understanding of the respective effects of affect and motivation, which is of special interest regarding alterations of emotion-motivation interaction found in several psychopathological disorders.