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Willingness towards cognitive engagement: a preliminary study based on a behavioural entropy approach

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Abstract

Faced with a novel task some people enthusiastically embark in it and work with determination, while others soon lose interest and progressively reduce their efforts. Although cognitive neuroscience has explored the behavioural and neural features of apathy, the why’s and how’s of positive engagement are only starting to be understood. Stemming from the observation that the left hemisphere is commonly associated to a proactive (‘do something’) disposition, we run a preliminary study exploring the possibility that individual variability in eagerness to engage in cognitive tasks could reflect a preferred left- or right-hemisphere functioning mode. We adapted a task based on response-independent reinforcement and used entropy to characterize the degree of involvement, diversification, and predictability of responses. Entropy was higher in women, who were overall more active, less dependent on instructions, and never reduced their engagement during the task. Conversely, men showed lower entropy, took longer pauses, and became significantly less active by the end of the allotted time, renewing their efforts mainly in response to negative incentives. These findings are discussed in the light of neurobiological data on gender differences in behaviour.

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Acknowledgements

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. The authors wish to thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Medicina dei Sistemi and CBMS, Università di Roma Tor Vergata, Via Montpellier 1, 00133, Rome, Italy

    Elena Daprati

  2. Institut des Sciences Cognitives Marc Jeannerod, CNRS UMR 5229, Bron, France

    Angela Sirigu & Michel Desmurget

  3. Dipartimento di Ingegneria Elettronica, Università di Roma Tor Vergata, Roma, Italy

    Eugenio Martinelli

  4. Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università di Roma La Sapienza, Roma, Italy

    Daniele Nico

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  1. Elena Daprati
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  2. Angela Sirigu
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Correspondence to Elena Daprati.

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Daprati, E., Sirigu, A., Desmurget, M. et al. Willingness towards cognitive engagement: a preliminary study based on a behavioural entropy approach. Exp Brain Res 237, 995–1007 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-019-05482-6

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