I have summarized the key points from various research studies: [Research](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6379460/): A Reward-Based Framework of Perceived Control (2019) * Perceived control, defined as the belief in one's ability to exert control over situations or events, is intricately linked to **dopamine** neurotransmission within corticostriatal pathways in a reward-based framework. Choice opportunity, instrumental contingency, and reward rate could individually and collectively contribute to specific and general perceived control. * Choice opportunity, intrinsic to perceived control, activates corticostriatal regions in response to anticipation, suggesting inherent appetitive motivation value mediated by **dopamine** projections to the striatum. Choice opportunity may bias instrumental action-selection via input from the striatum, which is the main candidate to integrate motivational and affective value with instrumental actions. * Regardless of whether average reward rate or reward prevalence might be a better account for perceived control, outcome-based aspects could constitute an important element contributing to perceived control. * One potential caveat of outcome-related processes in perceived control is revealed via contingency judgment tasks where the probabilities of an outcome and the probability of responding may create an ‘illusion of control’ * Consistent with the idea that a belief or perception of control is more potent than objective control, an illusion of control basically reflects the subjective judgment that an action-outcome causal relation exists when in fact there is no contingency. When probabilities of reward and action are high, the probability that both coincide is also high, hence affecting estimations of action-outcome causal relationships, which could contribute to the false belief that one has control Your thoughts?