Relação entre motivação por recompensa e memória de trabalho visuoespacial de crianças

Abstract

Visuospatial working memory is derived from a working memory subsystem, the visuospatial sketch, and is responsible for storing and manipulating visual and spatial information. The studies that propose to investigate it point to a positive effect on its performance triggered by the availability of reward. In this sense, the present study was developed with the objective of investigating how the interaction between reward motivation and working memory occurs at the neural level, as well as analyzing the effects of this interaction on the performance of visuospatial working memory in the child population. To meet the proposed objectives, two studies were prepared. Study 1 consisted of an integrative review and investigated, through neuroimaging studies, the neural substrates that enable the action of the reward on visuospatial working memory. And study 2 consisted of an empirical research, of a quasi-experimental character, in which the effect of the reward on the visuospatial working memory of children aged four to six years old, without cognitive impairment, was observed. The results found in study 1 suggested that the interaction between reward motivation and working memory occurs through three distinct neural processes, namely: (1) through communication between the regions that form the CPF of the brain, with the orbitofrontal region a send motivational information to the dorsolateral region, (2) through the dynamic functional link between frontal theta and beta activities, which would facilitate increases in MTV capacity, and (3) through the modulatory action of dopamine in brain areas involved in the functioning of the MT. Regarding the results of study 2, these did not indicate the effect of the reward on the performance of visuospatial working memory in the investigated sample when comparisons were made between rewarded and unrewarded children, although they showed variations between the motivational levels presented. Taken together, these results corroborate the existence of interaction between "hot" and "cool" executive processes at the CPF, as well as underscoring the importance of considering the use of reward presentation modes that promote not only greater engagement with the task, as well as the maintenance of this behavior throughout the task, so that the availability of reward can lead to positive effects on the functioning of children's MTV.