Biologicalbasis of motivation Flashcards
•Q1: Which specific brain structures and pathways
are the neural basis of specific motivations and
emotions?
Stimulating one part of the hypothalamus,
increases hunger, while stimulating a different part
of the HT increases satiety
Q2: How brain activity in turn creates the
motivational and emotional states
Eg.2.: damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex
dramatically decreases the person’s capacity to exert
cognitive control over emotions and urges.
Biochemical agents
•Neurotransmitters: communication messengers
of the nervous system
•Hormones: communication messengers of the
endocrine system
•Can stimulate and suppress specific brain sites
•Subcortical Brain (affective):
– unconscious, automatic, and impulsive
– basic urges and impulses and emotion-rich motivations such
as hunger, thirst, anger, fear, pleasure, desire, reward,
wanting.
– Here motivation and emotion are typically reactive events
that just happen to the person.
•Cortical brain (cognitive):
– conscious, intentional, and purposive
– cognitively rich motivations such as goals, plans, strategies, values, and beliefs about the self.
– Here motivation and emotion are typically deliberate and intentional mental states that the person creates for himself
The limbic system
relevant in motivation and emotion •Hypothalamus (incl. mamillary body) •Amygdala •Hippocampus •Septal area •Ventral tegmental area
Hypothalamus
•Regulates:
•eating, drinking, and mating (via the motivations for hunger, satiety, thirst, and sex)
– responsive to natural rewards (e.g., food, water, mating),
• the endocrine system and
autonomic nervous system
– controls the pituitary gland— the so-callEd master gland of the endocrine (or hormonal) system
•the autonomic nervous system (the excitatory sympathetic system and the inhibitoryb parasympathetic system)
Orbitofrontal cortex
• stores and processes reward-related information that helps us to formulate our preferences and make our choices • inhibits inappropriate actions • central to the ability to delay gratification (selfcontrol, willpower over immediate urges)
Amygdala
(the ‘social’ brain) Function: 1) - reacting to emotionally significant and aversive events 2) - reacting to rewarding and beneficial properties of environmental objects and events
Reticular formation
•key role in arousal, alertness, and awakening the brain to process •two parts: – the ascending reticular activating system (to alert and arouse the brain) – the descending reticular formation incoming sensory information.
Prefrontal cortex
right / left lobes: creating qualitatively different emotional tone •right lobe activity: tends to produce negative emotion and “no-go” avoidance motivation, •left lobe activity: tends to produce positive emotion and “go” approach motivation. creates the conscious awareness of – negative emotions (mainly coming from the amygdala) – pleasure or reward (mainly drom the dopamine-network of the ventral tegmental area and nucleus accumbens) •house of conscious goals
BIS / BAS system
•biologically based personality difference:
– sensitive left prefrontal lobe: vulnerability to optimism,
positive emotionality, and approach motivation. A
strong behavioral activation system (BAS), similar to
extraversion
– sensitive right prefrontal lobe: vulnerability to
pessimism, negative emotionality, and avoidance
motivation. A strong behavioral inhibition system
(BIS), which is similar to neuroticism
Neurotransmitters
Dopamine
serotonin
norepinephrine (adrenaline)
endorphin
(1) dopamine,
which allows communication among the brain
structures involved with reward and pleasure;
.
– (2) serotonin
, which allows communication among the brain
structures involved with mood and emotion;
