Lecture 22: Motivation and Decision Making

Question 1

Olds and Milner (1954)

Answer 1

• Rats pressed a lever for electrical brain stimulation
• Found that rats trade eating to self-stimulate

Question 2

Dopamine Mesolimbic Pathway

Answer 2

• Midbrain VTA contains dopamine neurons
• Encodes motivation/wanting

Question 3

Hedonic Hotspots

Answer 3

• nucleus accumbens medial shell, ventral pallidum, orbitofrontal cortex, insula cortex, and brainstem

Question 4

Prediction Error

Answer 4

The discrepancy between expectation and what actually occurs

Question 4

Monetary Incentive Delay (MID) Task

Answer 4

Person sits in front of computer and sees either a yellow, red, or blue cue. Red cue means wait, blue means you can earn $0 no matter what you do. Yellow means if they do good they get $1. There is a delay in between cues. Person needs to press a button when screen shows up after cue. Frontal cortex seems to be involved in reward outcome (distinct from motivation)