Motivated Behavior- Polston

Question 1

What is motivated behavior?

Answer 1

“Motivated Behavior” is defined as behavior that is initiated, sustained, and directed towards the achievement of a goal.”

She likes Maslow’s Model

-Physiological Drives
Autonomic and neuroendocrine responses

-Psychological Drives
Limbic and higher cortical functions

Question 2

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Answer 2

we have a hierarchy of needs shaped like a pyramid; we have to achieve needs from the bottom in order to get to the next level

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Physiological needs
Hunger, thirst, thermoregulation

Safety and security, reproduction (don’t want your babies eaten up)

Love, affection, connectedness

Self esteem, recognition, acceptance (he believed that you cannot have this unless you have relationships with others)

Actualization, achievement,
accomplishment

Question 3

What are physiological (“drive states”): thermoregulation, hunger, thirst, sex?

Answer 3

is a state of knowing you need something and being driven to get it

• states of motivation characterized by physiological need
• behaviors associated with maintaining homeostasis for survival
• characterized by physical discomfort due to a need, followed by relief when the need is satisfied.

Question 4

What are psychological drives: achievement, approval, love, happiness?

Answer 4

• complex personal/social drives
• states of motivation characterized by psychological need
• behaviors associated with emotional responses
• characterized by emotional distress due to a need, followed by pleasure when the need is satisfied

Question 5

What are the factors that influence motivated behavior?

Answer 5

Motivational Factors

• Ecological/environmental factors (water fountain looks good I wasn’t thirsty but looking at it I am now)
• Anticipatory Mechanisms appetitive (comes before consummatory behavior) vs. consummatory behaviors
• Effects of learning on behavior (we learn what we like and what we don’t like and the things we do like we do them more often)
• Hedonistic factors: a little hint of sinfulness

Question 6

What are the parts of the basic drive circuit?

Answer 6

food, water, warmth
Basic Drive Circuits

• Sensory stimulus (information)
• Sensory “state” detector: arcuate nucleus detecting leptin
• Sensory integrators
• Behavior controllers: paraventricular nucleus
• Behavioral or visceral response

Question 7

What are the hypothalamic inputs?

Answer 7

-Sensory
Visual, olfactory, visceral

-Physiological
Blood temperature, hormone levels, blood glucose, etc.

-Limbic
Hippocampus, amygdala, etc.

Question 8

The hypothalamus is the main source of central control over homeostasis.

Answer 8

The hypothalamus regulates basic biological processes such as thermoregulation, as well as thirst, feeding, and sexual behavior.

The hypothalamus regulates pituitary gland function, and thereby controls endocrine systems.

The hypothalamus is intimately associated with limbic structures that mediate learning, motivation, and emotion.

Question 9

The Limbic System

Answer 9

Hippocampus: Learning and Memory

Cingulate gyrus: Learning and emotion

Amygdala: Fear, pain, aversive or negative learning (never touch hot stove again)

Ventral basal ganglia: Motivation and reward (if you want a sip of coffee you gotta get up and get it)

Question 10

Papez circuit loop

Answer 10

????return is from the thalamus through the fornix and back to the hypothalamus

-allows close relationship between drive oriented behaviors of the hypothalamus and pleasure centers of the limbic system

Question 11

Interactions between limbic and hypothalamic structures

Answer 11

• provide emotional context to basic homeostatic functions like feeding and sex, and allow for learned associations
• affective disorders such as anxiety and depression are mediated by the limbic system, and may influence hypothalamic autonomic function as well as feeding and sexual behaviors.

Question 12

The output primarily from the hypothalamus is?

Answer 12

paraventricular nucleus: controls endocrine and autonomic system

Question 13

Sensory and motor components form “feedback loops” that maintain homeostatic states.

Answer 13

detected blood is salty
hypothalamus makes you have dry mouth
you drink water and you are no longer salty

Question 14

How does pleasure play a role? What are cravings?

Answer 14

We crave things that we’ve tried and liked

cravings are influenced by associative events: when you sit down and study you get a craving for chips

Can be stimulated by appetitive thoughts and behaviors

Question 15

What is reward?

Answer 15

• provides physiological gratification or just pleasure
• A behavioral outcome that provides relief or satisfaction
• Reward can influence learning of behaviors through positive reinforcement

based on a dopamine pathway called the mesolimbic pathway

Question 16

What is the mesolimbic pathway?

Answer 16

• has dopamine
• the mesolimbic dopamine pathway is involved with motivation and reward. It is heavily implicated in addiction

Dopaminergic projections from the ventral tegmental area innervate the nucleus accumbens (main pleasure center of the brain) and ventral pallidum. “Reward Centers”.

Reward circuits interact with prefrontal cortex (better judgement center, decision making, impulse control) and limbic structures.

Question 17

Excitatory and inhibitory components form “feedback loops” that maintain reward states. Disrupted interactions in reward circuits may lead to dysfunctional regulation of craving and reward.

Answer 17

ventral tegmental area: where dopamine is

nucleus accumbens: pleasure center

these keep each other in balance

Question 18

What is addiction?

Answer 18

if reward-regulating center is not strong

Addiction is a chronically relapsing disorder characterized by:

• change in the level of motivation associated with a given reward
• compulsion to seek and indulge in the object of the addiction
• loss of control in limiting intake, uncontrolled acceleration of behavior
• emergence of a negative emotional state when access is prevented.

Question 19

Addiction does not discriminate based on race, gender, intelligence, education or socioeconomic status.

Answer 19

-propensity for addiction may be mediated by genetic, developmental, social, or physiological factors

• age is a dominant factor
• teenagers and young adults may become addicted more easily due to incomplete development of the prefrontal cortex

we get our prefrontal cortex at 25 years; get your child to try things later on because the prefrontal cortex is wired in the presence of some influence (nicotine)

Question 20

One addiction may predict vulnerability for others.

-the phenomenon of the “addictive personality”

Answer 20

is a reflection of their neurocircuitry

it predicts vulnerability

Question 21

Why are some things more addictive than others?

Answer 21

nucleus accumbens have receptors for these addictive things

-Neurons within the reward circuits express high levels of receptors for compounds with a high potential for addiction.

Question 22

What are the stages of addiction?

Answer 22

Experimentation:

• Behavior is novel
• Behavior causes positive reinforcement

Binge/intoxication

• Behavior is associated with hedonistic reward
• Self-control over behavior is reduced

Tolerance

• Rewarding aspects of behavior are diminished
• Craving is increased
• Frequency or magnitude of the behavior is increased
• Negative affect is associated with cessation of the behavior

Question 23

Drugs of abuse

Answer 23

cause a big dopamine rush in the nucleus accumbens

-Drugs of abuse induce rapid dopamine release in the Nucleus Accumbens/Ventral Pallidum

Question 24

Pleasurable foods, sex

Answer 24

-naturally rewarding behaviors induce rapid dopamine release in the Nucleus Accumbens/Ventral Pallidum

Question 25

When do you get addiction?

Answer 25

NA starts to downregulate expression of dopamine receptors; reduced dopamine receptor binding in the nucleus accumbens is characteristic of addiction

you don’t get the reward as a results of the downregulating

Dopamine neurotransmission in the nucleus accumbens is perturbed in methamphetamine abusers.

your pleasure center is not responding so you do more of the activity trying to get pleasure

Dopamine binding in the nucleus accumbens is also reduced when homeostatic behaviors are out of control.

Question 26

What are treatments for addiction?

Answer 26

Pharmacological approaches:
  Antabuse (Disulfiram)
  Methadone
  Nicotine replacement
  Wellbutrin (Bupropian)
  Chantix (Varenicline)

Behavioral approaches
  Alcoholics anonymous
  Narcotics anonymous
  Overeaters anonymous
  Diet plans (NutriSystem, Jenny Craig)