Psychological and neural mechanisms associated with effort-related cardiovascular reactivity and cognitive control: An integrative approach

- Effort-related cardiovascular (CV) reactivity is mainly determined by the dACC.
- The dACC integrates information on success importance and task difficulty.
- The dACC determines the amount of required and justified effort.
- Implementation of control is achieved in more lateral areas of the prefrontal cortex.
- Effort-related CV reactivity reflects the intensity of controlled cognitive processes.

Numerous studies have assessed cardiovascular (CV) reactivity as a measure of effort mobilization during cognitive tasks. However, psychological and neural processes underlying effort-related CV reactivity are still relatively unclear. Previous research reliably found that CV reactivity during cognitive tasks is mainly determined by one region of the brain, the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), and that this region is systematically engaged during cognitively demanding tasks. The present integrative approach builds on the research on cognitive control and its brain correlates that shows that dACC function can be related to conflict monitoring and integration of information related to task difficulty and success importance-two key variables in determining effort mobilization. In contrast, evidence also indicates that executive cognitive functioning is processed in more lateral regions of the prefrontal cortex. The resulting model suggests that, when automatic cognitive processes are insufficient to sustain behavior, the dACC determines the amount of required and justified effort according to task difficulty and success importance, which leads to proportional adjustments in CV reactivity and executive cognitive functioning. These propositions are discussed in relation to previous findings on effort-related CV reactivity and cognitive performance, new predictions for future studies, and relevance for other self-regulatory processes.