Examining changes in corticospinal excitability and balance performance in response to social-comparative feedback

•Social-comparative feedback produced a valent (emotional) response.•Type of feedback did not lead to any differential changes in balance performance.•Despite the valent response, feedback did not alter corticospinal excitability. Social-comparative feedback informs an individual that their performance was better or worse than the group. Previous studies have found that compared to knowledge of results alone, social-comparative feedback produces a valence response that results in larger improvements in balance performance. However, the neural processes contributing to these motor improvements have not yet been examined. Does social-comparative feedback alter corticospinal excitability and consequently, balance performance? Thirty-six healthy young adults stood and maintained their balance on a stabiliometer for eight trials. After three of the trials, the neutral (i.e., only knowledge of results) group received their performance feedback (i.e., time on balance) while the other two groups also received positive (i.e., performed better than the group) or negative (i.e., performed worse than the group) social-comparative feedback. To measure corticospinal excitability, soleus motor-evoked potentials were elicited using transcranial magnetic stimulation at the beginning of the experiment, after the presentation of feedback, and at the end of the experiment. Pre- and post- ratings of confidence, perceived skill, motivation, and anxiety were also collected. The negative feedback group reported decreases in perceived skill (43 ± 29%) and balance confidence (26 ± 28%), while the positive group reported a 13 ± 17% increase in perceived skill. Despite these group differences in feedback perception, all three groups improved their balance performance by ≈35% (p