Lecture 4 - Personality and basic motivational systems Flashcards
What is Gray’s Behavioural Approach/Activation system (BAS) ?
A system relating to positive reinforcements
Mediates reactions to appetitive stimuli
Essentially - sensitivity to reward
What is Gray’s Behavioural Inhibition system (BIS) ?
A system relating to negative reinforcements
Mediates reactions to punishing stimuli (includes lack of a reward)
Essentially - avoidance or anxiety
If you have high BIS, what are you likely to be?
Anxious
If you have high BAS, what are you likely to be?
Extroverted
What are Gray’s (1982) 3 motivational/emotional systems?
BIS, BAS and FFF (fight flight or freeze - only included freeze later on)
What are the differences between BIS and FFF?
BIS - trying to avoid a possible threat
FFF = reacting to a threat in the moment
Why is impulsivity a misleading word to associate with BAS?
Better to think of it as sensitivity to reward - more long-term than impulsive reward-seeking in the moment
Can score on BIS predict score on BAS and vice versa?
No
What is the motivation in BAS?
Approach:
sources of/opportunities for:
food, water, sex, praise, mastery
More subtly, approach/acquire/learn about cues that predict and afford these natural rewards (e.g. party invite, money, fame)
e.g. this is what motivates us to earn money, and motivates us to make connections with people
The more sensitive to reward cues you are, the more you want sex, food, money etc.
You see food cues, you anticipate food. Often, you experience the anticipation and the consumption as rewarding in itself.
What is the motivation in BIS?
Avoid:
Potentially dangerous scenarios (alleyway at night), new scenarios, fights, reproach from family and friends, social defeats and humiliation, gambling, predators, predator hunting grounds, out-of-date food?
The more sensitive to punishment you are, the more you avoid potential fights, avoid losing money, avoid disappointing your friends, and avoid potential social humiliation
You repeatedly imagine different scenarios where, e.g., your friend reacts badly to you letting them down, you experience this as ‘worry’ as something unpleasant/painful and are keen to avoid feeling this future pain.
Why are there species difference with regard to BAS and BIS? (Example)
Predator vs prey
E.g. lions need more BAS, mice need more BIS/FFF
Is an individual’s personality is determined by their BAS and BIS activity according to Gray?
Yes
Stable aspects of personality relating to motivation
Did Gray fail to create his own questionnaires for BIS/BAS?
Yes - His followers have instead created questionnaires themselves which were designed to implement his ideas.
Who created influential BIS/BAS questionnaires?
Carver and White (1994) - BIS/BAS scales
Torrubia et al. (2001) - SPSRQ
What is the BAS drive?
Doing things to satisfy need for reward
What did Takahashi et al. (2007) show about genetic influence on BIS/BAS?
Tested identical vs fraternal twins.
For both BIS and BAS at both timepoints (4 measures),
Correlations across identical twins are higher
than across fraternal twins.
What was the heritability of BIS/BAS? Takahashi et al. (2007)
0.28-0.35
(i.e. ~a third of the variance is attributable to genes).
Similar to most aspects of personality - most are 1/3 heritable
Can be changed by life-changing events
Are BIS and BAS scores relatively stable over 2/3 year period?
Yes - Test-retest values were relatively high.
Are BIS and BAS orthogonal dimensions? (Independent measures)
Practically, Yes!
If you do BIS vs BAS correlations, you get very low r values.
BIS-to-BAS r = 0.06 at timepoint 1
BIS-to-BAS r = 0.03 at timepoint 2.
i.e. these r values are pretty close to zero.
Exactly zero would indicate perfect orthogonality. If you tell me someone’s BIS score, I can’t predict their BAS score.
Does the SPSRQ have good internal consistency and good test-retest reliability?
Yes
Good internal consistency (answer to Q1 predicts answer to Q2, Q3, Q4, etc)
Good test-retest stability
Test-retest stability declines as the time interval increases;
still good after 3 years (though sample is small)
Are the SP and SR dimensions also orthogonal in the SPSRQ?
Yes
Torrubia et al (2001) had 4 studies where subjects answered both SP and SR questions. R values for SP-to-SR correlations were in the following range: -0.05 to +0.08
Basically, near zero, suggesting orthogonality of SP and SR dimensions.
Why is orthogonality a good thing?
The 2 scores are not redundant. You need both scores to capture someone’s personality
What is the key neurotransmitter for BAS?
dopamine (opioids also important in reward)
What are the key brain regions for BAS?
Ventral tegmental nucleus, ventral striatum including nucleus accumbens, amygdala, ventral pallidum, orbitofrontal cortex
What are the key brain regions in the BIS?
septo-hippocampal system, amygdala (esp. in later versions of theory) & medial prefrontal cortex
What key regions in BIS/BAS are part of the basal ganglia, and what larger system is the basal ganglia part of?
Nucleus accumbens and ventral pallidum
Part of limbic system
What activities increase dopamine release?
Sex
Amphetamine
Cocaine
Cannabis
Nicotine
Food
At what point in sex are dopamine levels the highest - what does this mean?
Highest DA levels before ejaculation - appetitive increase
Dopamine levels rise before the point of pleasure - it rises when you anticipate the prospect of getting pleasure
What is ‘wanting’ mediated by? (brain area and neurotransmitter)
‘Wanting’ mediated by Nucleus accumbens dopamine
DOPAMINE - WANTING
- Appetitive stages (‘before the orgasm’)
- Wanting/Anticipating
- Reward Prediction error or Incentive salience
DA rich regions are all reward regions
What is ‘liking’ mediated by? (brain area and neurotransmitter)
‘Liking’ mediated by Nucleus accumbens opioids (endogenous = endorphins) (dorso/rostral shell)
VP also rich in opioids
OPIOIDS - LIKING
- Consummatory stages (‘during/after the orgasm’)
- Liking/enjoying
- ‘Yumminess’
- Hedonic pleasure
What is the distinction between wanting and liking (smoking example)
Smoker: “I’m not addicted to cigarettes. I don’t even like them!”
Compelling need to satisfy a craving, not enjoyment
What did Hahn et al., (2009) find that scores on the SR part of SPSRQ were positively correlated with?
(Monetary reward task)
Positively correlated with activity in the Ventral Striatum/Nucleus Accumbens region &
with activity in the Orbitofrontal Cortex region
During a period when the subjects were anticipating a large reward.
Does the SR score correlate with BMI?
(Food as a reward - Franken and Muris, 2005)
Yes - positively
SR (sensitivity to reward) score correlated with BMI
r = 0.31, p < 0.005
Does the SR score correlate with food craving score?
(Food as a reward - Franken and Muris, 2005)
Yes - positively
SR (sensitivity to reward) score correlated with Food craving score
r = 0.32, p < 0.005
Does food craving score correlate positively with BMI? (Franken and Muris, 2005)
Yes, but weakly
Only at r = 0.24, p < 0.05
Does SR (which is not about food) predict weight better than a questionnaire which is explicitly about food cravings (FCQ-T)?
Yes - in Franken and Muris (2005), the SR correlation with BMI was not mediated by food cravings
Gray’s BAS personality construct regarding reward (SR) predicted:
1) long-term behaviour (reflected in objective Body Mass Index)
2) self-report of food cravings
Indeed the SR questionnaire,
which is not about food (and does not even have a single question about food)
predicted weight better than a questionnaire which was explicitly designed to tap cravings for food!
Beaver et al. (2006) used the BAS drive subscale and recorded brain activity in response to images of appetising food (vs non-food and non-appetising food) - what reward regions did they find?
Reward regions in Beaver et al included:
Ventral Striatum (i.e. including nucleus accumbens)
Orbitofrontal Cortex
Ventral Pallidum
Amygdala
MAIN RESULT: Response to appetising foods is strongly positively correlated with BAS drive scores in classic reward areas
What was a methodological problem in Beaver et al. (2006)?
Usually, you correct multiple comparisons in fMRI - some of these comparisons here were not corrected, so there is a risk of type 1 error in this study
In Beaver et al. (2006), what was response to appetising foods strongly positively correlated with?
BAS drive scores in classic reward areas
(VS, VP, amygdala, midbrain, OFC)
BAS fun seeking component was not correlated with these reward areas
In Beaver et al. (2006), what was the main predictor of neural activity in the reward system in response to appetising foods?
BAS drive
More activity in detected brain regions - assume this is more dopamine activity, this makes cravings more intense and frequent
Weydmann et al. (2022) found that SR and BAS questionnaires positively predict a variety of eating behaviours. What was included in implicit responses to food cues and what % of results were in the expected direction?
Approach Bias for Dessert
Approach to Healthy Food
Attentional Bias to Ice Cream,
Attentional Bias to Unhealthy Food
Attentional Bias to non-appetizing food
Implicit Approach Toward Low-Calorie Food Implicit Expectancy
Implicit Liking and Wanting
70% (7/10) of results significant in expected direction
Weydmann et al. (2022) found that SR and BAS questionnaires positively predict a variety of eating behaviours. What was included in hedonic reactions to food and what % of results were in the expected direction?
Craving for Ice Cream and Chocolate
Explicit Liking and Wanting
Desire for bigger pizza
Liking Spicy Tomato Juice
M&M’s consumption
Urge to Eat
87.5 % (7/8) of results significant in expected direction
The more extroverted an individual, what happens to their reward-related brain activity and their reward related brain regions?
The more ‘Extroverted’ the individual:
The stronger their reward-related brain activity (as with BAS/SR)
The larger their reward-related brain regions
What other personality constructs does BAS overlap with?
Extroversion
Novelty seeking
Reward dependence
What other personality constructs does BIS overlap with?
‘Neuroticism’, ‘Harm avoidance’, ‘Trait Anxiety’,
What did Cohen et al. (2005) find that dopamine drives in the brain? What did this positively correlate with?
Reward response from reward-related brain regions (OFC, nuc acc and amyg)
Extroversion scores positively correlate with reward response in the brain
What does the A1 Allele of DA receptor gene result in? Cohen et al. (2005)
Blunts the reward response in reward-related brain areas
Shows that dopamine drives reward related activity in the brain
What is the correlation between extraversion and medial OFC size? (Deyoung et al, 2010)
+0.35
What brain area rises in activity in response to erotic images?
NACC
Does BAS brain activity to sex & food cues predict subsequent sexual and food-related behaviour 6 months later?
Yes - Demos et al. (2012)
Demos et al. (2012) measured brain response to images (reward related - food and sex) in female undergraduates at time 1, and then 6 months later at time 2. Was brain’s response to reward-related cues predictive of future behaviour?
Response to food images positively correlated with BMI at time point 2
Response to sexual scenes positively correlated with dyadic sexual desire at time point 2
Left Nucleus Accumbens activity on viewing sexual images was notably higher in individuals who had sex with at least one partner
The degree to which reward-related cues activate the nucleus accumbens (presumably DA/opioid release) predicts how much that person will subsequently engage in the given rewarding behaviour
The effect is specific to the type of reward (food, sex)
