How the Brain Translates Money into Force: A Neuroimaging Study of Subliminal Motivation
SciencePublished 12 April 2007Open access
Mathias Pessiglione, Liane Schmidt, Bogdan Draganski, Raffaël Kalisch, Hakwan Lau, Raymond J. Dolan
Citations625
Generate an AI Snapshot to get a quick, structured summary of this paper.
Study Snapshot
ObjectiveStudy objective
MethodsResearch methodology
PopulationPopulation studied
Sample sizeSample sizes
OutcomesStudy outcomes here
ResultsStudy results comes here
LimitationsResearch study limitations comes here
A concise AI-generated summary of the paper will appear here once you click Generate AI Snapshot.
TL;DR
It is shown that, even when subjects cannot report how much money is at stake, they nevertheless deploy more force for higher amounts, which is underpinned by engagement of a specific basal forebrain region.
Abstract
Unconscious motivation in humans is often inferred but rarely demonstrated empirically. We imaged motivational processes, implemented in a paradigm that varied the amount and reportability of monetary rewards for which subjects exerted physical effort. We show that, even when subjects cannot report how much money is at stake, they nevertheless deploy more force for higher amounts. Such a motivational effect is underpinned by engagement of a specific basal forebrain region. Our findings thus reveal this region as a key node in brain circuitry that enables expected rewards to energize behavior, without the need for the subjects;awareness.
Keywords
Neuroscience
Annual Review of NeuroscienceParallel Organization of Functionally Segregated Circuits Linking Basal Ganglia and Cortex
8,556 Citations1986Garrett E. Alexander, Mahlon R. DeLong +1 more
The basal ganglia serve primarily to integrate diverse inputs from the entire cerebral cortex and to "funnel" these influences, via the ventrolateral thalamus, to the motor cortex.
Psychological ReviewFears, phobias, and preparedness: Toward an evolved module of fear and fear learning.
3,038 Citations2001Arne Öhman, Susan Mineka
The fear module is assumed to mediate an emotional level of fear learning that is relatively independent and dissociable from cognitive learning of stimulus relationships.
ScienceDissociable Roles of Ventral and Dorsal Striatum in Instrumental Conditioning
2,151 Citations2004John P. O’Doherty, Peter Dayan +4 more
This work scanned human participants with functional magnetic resonance imaging while they engaged in instrumental conditioning to suggest partly dissociable contributions of the ventral and dorsal striatum to the critic and the actor.
Trends in Cognitive SciencesConscious, preconscious, and subliminal processing: a testable taxonomy
2,036 Citations2006Stanislas Dehaene, Jean‐Pierre Changeux +3 more
Nature NeuroscienceAbstract reward and punishment representations in the human orbitofrontal cortex
2,031 Citations2001John P. O’Doherty, Morten L. Kringelbach +3 more
Findings indicate that one emotional involvement of the human orbitofrontal cortex is its representation of the magnitudes of abstract rewards and punishments, such as receiving or losing money.
Neuroscience & Biobehavioral ReviewsFood reward: Brain substrates of wanting and liking
1,868 Citations1996Kent Berridge
Evidence from many sources is reviewed regarding both the psychological structure of food reward and the neural systems that mediate it and it is argued that this evidence suggests the following surprising possibilities regarding the functional components and brain substrates of food Reward.
NatureConscious and unconscious emotional learning in the human amygdala
1,686 Citations1998J S Morris, Annelie Bränström Öhman +1 more
The results indicate that the human amygdala can discriminate between stimuli solely on the basis of their acquired behavioural significance, and second, this response is lateralized according to the subjects' level of awareness of the stimuli.
Annual Review of PsychologyBehavioral Theories and the Neurophysiology of Reward
1,660 Citations2005Wolfram Schultz
The scientific investigation of behavioral processes by animal learning theory and economic utility theory has produced a theoretical framework that can help to elucidate the neural correlates for reward functions in learning, goal-directed approach behavior, and decision making under uncertainty.
NatureDopamine-dependent prediction errors underpin reward-seeking behaviour in humans
1,628 Citations2006Mathias Pessiglione, Ben Seymour +3 more
It is concluded that dopamine-dependent modulation of striatal activity can account for how the human brain uses reward prediction errors to improve future decisions.
Journal of Chemical NeuroanatomyThe primate basal ganglia: parallel and integrative networks
1,475 Citations2003Suzanne N. Haber
The basal ganglia and frontal cortex operate together to execute goal directed behaviors, and action decision-making processes are influenced by motivation and cognitive inputs, allowing the animal to respond appropriate to environmental cues.
Physiology & BehaviorMotivation concepts in behavioral neuroscience
1,278 Citations2004Kent Berridge
Major motivation concepts are evaluated that have historic importance or have influenced the interpretation of behavioral neuroscience research, including homeostasis, setpoints and settling points, intervening variables, hydraulic drives, drive reduction, appetitive and consummatory behavior.
Current Opinion in NeurobiologyNeurobehavioural mechanisms of reward and motivation
1,177 Citations1996Trevor W. Robbins, Barry J. Everitt
The analysis of the behavioural and neural mechanisms of reinforcement and motivation has benefited from the recent application of learning theory and better anatomical knowledge of the connectivity of certain key neural structures, such as the nucleus accumbens.
NatureImaging unconscious semantic priming
1,065 Citations1998Stanislas Dehaene, Lionel Naccache +6 more
The results indicate that masked stimuli have a measurable influence on electrical and haemodynamic measures of brain activity and a stream of perceptual, semantic and motor processes can occur without awareness.
Journal of NeuroscienceDistributed Neural Representation of Expected Value
963 Citations2005Brian Knutson, Jonathan Taylor +3 more
Findings suggest that mesolimbic brain regions support the computation of EV in an ascending and distributed manner: whereas subcortical regions represent an affective component, cortical regions also represent a probabilistic component, and, furthermore, may integrate the two.
The NeuroscientistReview: Electrodermal Responses: What Happens in the Brain
915 Citations2002Hugo Critchley
Electrodermal activity (EDA) is now the preferred term for changes in electrical conductance of the skin, including phasic changes that have been referred to as galvanic skin responses (GSR), that result from sympathetic neuronal activity.
NeuronIndividual Differences in Trait Anxiety Predict the Response of the Basolateral Amygdala to Unconsciously Processed Fearful Faces
686 Citations2004Amit Etkin, Kristen C. Klemenhagen +5 more
The findings provide a biological basis for the unconscious emotional vigilance characteristic of anxiety and a means for investigating the mechanisms and efficacy of treatments for anxiety.
Current Opinion in NeurobiologyThe basal ganglia: learning new tricks and loving it
644 Citations2005Ann M. Graybiel
A remarkable series of new findings support the view that the basal ganglia are essential for some forms of learning-related plasticity and suggest that they are parts of a brain-wide set of adaptive neural systems promoting optimal motor and cognitive control.
Annals of NeurologyDiffusion tensor fiber tracking shows distinct corticostriatal circuits in humans
550 Citations2004Stéphane Lehéricy, Mathieu Ducros +7 more
Diffusion tensor imaging–based fiber tracking showed that the posterior, anterior, and ventral compartments of the human striatum have specific connections with the cortex, and particularly the frontal lobes, the first direct demonstration of distinct corticostriatal connections in humans.
Journal of NeuroscienceDifferential Response Patterns in the Striatum and Orbitofrontal Cortex to Financial Reward in Humans: A Parametric Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study
519 Citations2003Rebecca Elliott, Jana L. Newman +2 more
This study uses a parametric functional magnetic resonance imaging design to look at the patterns of responding to systematically varying reward values in healthy volunteers, and suggests functional distinction in response patterns within a distributed reward system.
Journal of NeurophysiologyRelation between cerebral activity and force in the motor areas of the human brain
480 Citations1995C. Dettmers, Gereon R. Fink +8 more
Positron emission tomography studies were performed in six normal right-handed male volunteers to investigate the relationship between cerebral activation as measured by relative regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) and force peak exerted during right index finger flexion to determine in which central motor structures activity is directly correlated with force for repeatedly executed movements.
NeuronDirect Intracranial, fMRI, and Lesion Evidence for the Causal Role of Left Inferotemporal Cortex in Reading
438 Citations2006Raphaël Gaillard, Lionel Naccache +9 more
Results provide direct evidence for the causal role of the left occipitotemporal cortex in the recognition of visual words.
Neuroscience & Biobehavioral ReviewsThe limbic lobe and its output channels: Implications for emotional functions and adaptive behavior
361 Citations2005Lennart Heimer, Gary W. Van Hoesen
In their role as output channels for the limbic lobe, the basal forebrain functional-anatomical systems contribute to the establishment of a number of cortico-subcortical circuits, which provide an important part of the anatomical substrate for the elaboration of emotional functions and adaptive behavior.
Experimental Brain ResearchRelationship between muscle output and functional MRI-measured brain activation
299 Citations2001Te H. Dai, Jing Liu +3 more
The similarity in the relationship between muscle output and fMRI signal in the cortical regions suggests that correlated or networked activation among a number of cortical fields may be necessary for controlling precise static force of finger muscles.
NeuroImageA three-dimensional, histological and deformable atlas of the human basal ganglia. I. Atlas construction based on immunohistochemical and MRI data
295 Citations2006Jérôme Yelnik, Éric Bardinet +8 more
The atlas MRI is also used for its deformation to provide accurate conformation to the MRI of living patients, thus adding information at the histological level to the patient's MRI volume.
Cerebral CortexMotor control in basal ganglia circuits using fMRI and brain atlas approaches
257 Citations2005Stéphane Lehéricy, Éric Bardinet +7 more
Data show the different roles of motor, premotor and associative basal ganglia circuits in the processing of motor-related operations and suggest that activation can be precisely located within the entire circuitry of the basal Ganglia.
The Journal of Comparative NeurologyComparison of hippocampal, amygdala, and perirhinal projections to the nucleus accumbens: Combined anterograde and retrograde tracing study in the Macaque brain
244 Citations2002David P. Friedman, John P. Aggleton +1 more
A combination of anterograde and retrograde tracing techniques was used to study the projections to the nucleus accumbens from the amygdala, the hippocampal formation, and the perirhinal cortex in two species of macaque monkey, revealing evidence of “core”‐ and “shell’‐like regions within the accumben, but these different regions could not consistently be related to cytoarchitectonic features.
Journal of NeuroscienceVentral Pallidal Representation of Pavlovian Cues and Reward: Population and Rate Codes
132 Citations2004Amy J. Tindell, Kent Berridge +1 more
The VP makes use of dynamic CS population and rate codes to encode pavlovian reward cues in reward learning and uses stable UCS population and firing codes to encoded sucrose reward itself.
NeuroscienceEffects of medial dorsal thalamic and ventral pallidal lesions on the acquisition of a conditioned place preference: Further evidence for the involvement of the ventral striatopallidal system in reward-related processes
130 Citations1993Gráinne McAlonan, Trevor W. Robbins +1 more
The results indicate that reward-related processes, as measured in the place preference conditioning paradigm, may depend upon ventral striatopallidal outflow that engages medial dorsal thalamus-frontal cortex mechanisms, in addition to the previously highlighted direct outflow to brainstem elements of the motor system.
NeuroImageSubthalamic nucleus and internal globus pallidus scale with the rate of change of force production in humans
84 Citations2004David E. Vaillancourt, Mary A. Mayka +2 more
It is concluded that fast, ballistic force production is preprogrammed, requiring a small metabolic demand from the basal ganglia, and movements that require the internal regulation of the rate of change of force are associated with increased metabolic demands from the subthalamic nucleus and internal segment of the globus pallidus.
Behavioural Brain ResearchVentral pallidum self-stimulation: a moveable electrode mapping study
74 Citations1995George Panagis, Elefthèrios Miliaressis +2 more
The lowest threshold found in the VP was slightly higher than that usually obtained for the most rewarding brain areas (VTA, dorsal raphé, LH, amygdala), which suggests that the VP represents an important structure for reward.