Motivation

QOTD

Taylor Kugler What do you think motivation is mainly driven by? A) Drives B) Incentive C) Needs

Megan Rosa What motivates you to do well in school? A. the satisfaction of doing well B. getting good grades C. wanting to go on to grad school or getting a good career D. to please my parents E. I have no motivation

Sarah Daugherty, Betsy Bennett How many people in your life do you know that have had an eating disorder? A. None B. 1-5 C D. 10 or more

The Big Questions / Issues What is non-obvious about motivation?  Textbook treatment is mostly naming the obvious  Does neuroscience make it more interesting? Challenge questions:  Why to you procrastinate?  Why do people go to graduate school?

Behaviorist Motivations: Get rewards, avoid punishments.. Pavlov Skinner Dopamine

Motivating Phenomenology Why is it so hard to start something (packing for a trip, writing a paper, paying bills, cleaning desk…)  But once started, it really isn’t so bad..

Motivating Phenomenology Ever find yourself playing mindless video games for far longer than you should? Why can’t I stop myself from organizing my kid’s Legos, or cleaning leaves from pool?

Two Phases of Mental Life Goal selection  Careful weighing of costs / benefits to select goal  Multiple constraint satisfaction of needs, “drives”, opportunities, risks, costs, effort, etc.. Goal engaged  Selected goal robustly held – hard to give up..  Continuous evaluation of proximity to goal  Dopamine bursts, dips as function of changes  Costs are significantly downplayed (but learned) Strong dissociations in value functions

Why is it so hard to start something (packing for a trip, writing a paper, paying bills, cleaning desk…)  But once started, it really isn’t so bad.. Goal selection process carefully weighs costs / benefits, considering many different possible goals Applied to Phenomenology

Ever find yourself playing mindless video games for far longer than you should? Why can’t I stop myself from organizing my kid’s Legos, or cleaning leaves from pool? Goal is engaged: incremental progress drives dopamine – video games engineered to deliver Costs, alternatives are downplayed

SMBC by Zach Weiner

Dopamine = progress toward goal LV = phasic dopamine driven by engaged goal PV = was goal achieved or not; time to select new LV = phasic dopamine driven by engaged goal PV = was goal achieved or not; time to select new

Distributed Goal Network Striatum: helps select, maintain coordinated reps throughout network (BG gated WM)

Sample Goal Taxonomy

Map of Goals in vmPFC Driven by subcortical connectivity High-dimensional, multi- factorial representation Consistent with fMRI, MDD in sgACC, etc Map of Goals in vmPFC Driven by subcortical connectivity High-dimensional, multi- factorial representation Consistent with fMRI, MDD in sgACC, etc

Clinical Disorders The Goal-Driven Brain areas are implicated in major clinical disorders  Depression  OCD  ADHD  PTSD

Clinical Disorders Depression  Vicious cycle of: negative affect -> inability to select goals -> negative affect ->.. (helplessness)  Everything has high cost, low gain OCD  Insatiable goals constantly re-selected, driving habitual motor plans..  Avoidance goals: when is avoiding over?

Clinical Disorders ADHD  Difficulty sustaining engaged goals  Data shows it is not a cognitive issue: all about motivation instead.. PTSD  Inability to overcome negative memory with positive goal (can’t avoid or attack)  Often leads to depression (helplessness)

The Default Mode.. Same goal areas active “by default” – whenever we get a chance, we ruminate over goal-relevant past events and future plans..

Goal Lateralization? Dominant Left frontal areas encode dominant (active) goals Subordinate Right frontal areas monitor for alternative goals  Right ventral frontal cortex in stop signal (Chatham et al, 2012)  Task switching – inactive task in right (Charron & Koechlin, 2010)

Possibly Non-obvious Results Providing extrinsic rewards undermines intrinsic motivation! - e.g., rewarding kids for homework? Emphasizing trait makes people nervous - “you’re so smart” vs. “you worked hard!”

Challenge Problem: Grad School Grad students work long hours for little $ and a low-probability shot at becoming a professor.. Why?

What is strongest motivator? A. Money B. Social: fitting in, approval, impressing C. Food, drink D. Fear of punishment