Effects of the motivation focus on manual grasping

performed as a typical laboratory task (L) and when they are embedded in an everyday-like context (E). The present study
investigates whether this context-dependence is related to the subjects’ motivation focus. We manipulated subjects’ motivation
focus and observed significant effects of Context on performance, as in previous work, but also significant effects of Motivation
and Context x Motivation on performance. The interaction term could not be interpreted as generally higher or lower motivation
sensitivity in L than in E, and therefore it doesn’t support the hypothesis that context-dependence of grasping can be reduced
to motivation-dependence. We conclude that some brain areas contribute differently to L and to E, thus producing contextdependence,
and that those areas are differently sensitive to motivation