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<p>Deadlines fundamentally shape motivation. Research examining effort-based choices finds effort is an avoided cost. However, this overlooks how making progress on longer-term goals to be reached before deadlines motivate people to exert high effort for little immediate reward. Here, we test a framework where motivation depends on deadline pressure (work remaining / time remaining). Across four studies we use computational modelling examining decisions when physical effort makes progress on goals with deadlines. In support of the hypotheses, deadline pressure significantly impacts decision-making, shifting people from avoiding effort, to seeking the progress it makes. Using ultra-high-field fMRI, we show that functionally connected putamen and midcingulate cortex sub-regions process and update estimates of deadline pressure, with distinct anterior cingulate and putamen sub-regions processing effort both when it is being avoided or sought. These results reveal the neurocomputational mechanisms for how deadline pressure shapes motivation, and keep us on track with goals.</p>

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Neural and computational mechanisms of effort under the pressure of a deadline

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

    开放获取

  • 发表日期：

    2026年7月28日

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  • M. Andrea Pisauro,
  • Daniele Pollicino,
  • Lucy Fisher,
  • Matthew A. J. Apps

摘要

Deadlines fundamentally shape motivation. Research examining effort-based choices finds effort is an avoided cost. However, this overlooks how making progress on longer-term goals to be reached before deadlines motivate people to exert high effort for little immediate reward. Here, we test a framework where motivation depends on deadline pressure (work remaining / time remaining). Across four studies we use computational modelling examining decisions when physical effort makes progress on goals with deadlines. In support of the hypotheses, deadline pressure significantly impacts decision-making, shifting people from avoiding effort, to seeking the progress it makes. Using ultra-high-field fMRI, we show that functionally connected putamen and midcingulate cortex sub-regions process and update estimates of deadline pressure, with distinct anterior cingulate and putamen sub-regions processing effort both when it is being avoided or sought. These results reveal the neurocomputational mechanisms for how deadline pressure shapes motivation, and keep us on track with goals.