Skip to content
DraconiticResearch
Search Sources API
203,234 studies31 sourcesUpdated 57 min ago
PreprintCC BY-NC-NDbioRxiv

Eyes on the prize: a neural basis of perceptual choking under pressure

  • M. E. McDonnell
  • A. N. Chandrasekaran
  • C. S. Ki
  • A. L. Smoulder
  • H. Miyata
  • B. Yu
  • A. P. Batista
  • M. A. Smith
  • S. M. Chase1
  1. 1Carnegie Mellon University
Read full textPDFDOICite

Abstract

Even professional athletes sometimes fail to perform when it matters most. This phenomenon, known as choking under pressure, has been observed in a variety of motor and cognitive tasks. Can inordinately large rewards influence even sensory processing, and if so, what might be its neural basis? To probe this, we studied rhesus monkeys performing a challenging color change detection task and recorded from populations of neurons in visual area V4. We found that monkeys underperformed when offered rare "jackpot" rewards and uncovered associated detrimental alterations in V4 population activity. These findings were consistent with misallocated spatial attention, providing a potential neural basis for perceptual choking under pressure.

Related

  1. Neural abstraction of evidence accumulation enables flexible multidimensional perceptual decisions
    L. Benjamin, J. Drevet, V. Wyart
    bioRxivPreprintCC BY-NCFull textNeurosciencebioRxiv
  2. Neural correlates of perceptual consciousness from within: a narrative review of human intracranial research
    Francois Stockart, Alexis Robin, Hal Blumenfeld +6
    eLifePeer-reviewedCC BY 4.0Full textNeuroscienceHAL
  3. Neural latent representation of implicit perceptual decision confidence signatures from brain-wide intracranial EEG
    U. K. N. Mudavath, A. Asadpour, S. Gherman +5
    bioRxivPreprintCC BYFull textNeurosciencebioRxiv
  4. Distinct neural representations of perceptual and numerical absence in the human brain
    Benjy Barnett, Stephen Fleming
    PsyArXivPreprintCC BY 4.0Full textNeuroscienceOSF
  5. Distinct neural representations of perceptual and numerical absence in the human brain
    Benjy Barnett, Stephen M Fleming
    eLifePeer-reviewedCC BY 4.0Full textNeuroscienceeLife

Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@misc{mcdonnell2026eyes,
  title = {{Eyes on the prize: a neural basis of perceptual choking under pressure}},
  author = {M. E. McDonnell and A. N. Chandrasekaran and C. S. Ki and A. L. Smoulder and H. Miyata and B. Yu and A. P. Batista and M. A. Smith and S. M. Chase},
  howpublished = {bioRxiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = sep,
  doi = {10.64898/2026.09.30.755534},
  url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.30.755534v1},
  note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY  - UNPB
TI  - Eyes on the prize: a neural basis of perceptual choking under pressure
AU  - M. E. McDonnell
AU  - A. N. Chandrasekaran
AU  - C. S. Ki
AU  - A. L. Smoulder
AU  - H. Miyata
AU  - B. Yu
AU  - A. P. Batista
AU  - M. A. Smith
AU  - S. M. Chase
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/30
PB  - bioRxiv
DO  - 10.64898/2026.09.30.755534
UR  - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.30.755534v1
AB  - Even professional athletes sometimes fail to perform when it matters most. This phenomenon, known as choking under pressure, has been observed in a variety of motor and cognitive tasks. Can inordinately large rewards influence even sensory processing, and if so, what might be its neural basis? To probe this, we studied rhesus monkeys performing a challenging color change detection task and recorded from populations of neurons in visual area V4. We found that monkeys underperformed when offered rare "jackpot" rewards and uncovered associated detrimental alterations in V4 population activity. These findings were consistent with misallocated spatial attention, providing a potential neural basis for perceptual choking under pressure.
ER  -