Aversive Motivation Research Articles

Approach-related left prefrontal EEG asymmetry predicts muted error-related negativity

In two studies, we used electroencephalography (EEG) to test whether approach-motivation-related brain activity would predict reduced sensitivity to negative outcomes. In both studies, participants (Study 1, N=26; Study 2, N=56) were first recorded for baseline EEG to measure approach-related left frontal EEG activity. They then completed either the color-naming Stroop task (Study 1) or the Multi-Source Interference Task (Study 2) to measure error-related negativity (ERN), an event-related potential that has been associated with aversive motivation and distress. In both studies, higher leftward frontal EEG asymmetry predicted reduced ERN amplitude. Hierarchical regression analyses of the separate frontal nodes that comprised the asymmetry score further showed that left frontal activity predicted reduced ERN amplitude whereas right frontal activity predicted greater ERN amplitude. Results have implications for understanding emotion and motivation and for understanding the personal resilience associated with approach motivated states.

What and when to "want"? Amygdala-based focusing of incentive salience upon sugar and sex.

Amygdala-related circuitry helps translate learned Pavlovian associations into appetitive and aversive motivation, especially upon subsequent encounters with cues. We asked whether μ-opioid stimulation via microinjections of the specific agonist D-Ala(2), N-MePhe(4), Gly-ol)-enkephalin (DAMGO) in central nucleus of amygdala (CeA), or the adjacent basolateral amygdala (BLA) would magnify sucrose or sex "wanting", guided by available cues. CeA or BLA DAMGO enhancement of cue-triggered "wanting" was assessed using Pavlovian to instrumental transfer (PIT). Unconditioned food "wanting" was measured via intake, and male sexual "wanting" for an estrous female was measured in a sexual approach test. Sucrose hedonic taste "liking" was measured in a taste reactivity test. CeA (but not BLA) DAMGO increased the intensity of phasic peaks in instrumental sucrose seeking stimulated by Pavlovian cues over precue levels in PIT, while suppressing seeking at other moments. CeA DAMGO also enhanced food intake, as well as sexual approach and investigation of an estrous female by males. DAMGO "wanting" enhancements were localized to CeA, as indicated by "Fos plume"-based anatomical maps for DAMGO causation of behavioral effects. Despite increasing "wanting", CeA DAMGO decreased the hedonic impact or "liking" for sucrose in a taste reactivity paradigm. CeA μ-opioid stimulation specifically enhances incentive salience, which is dynamically guided to food or sex by available cues.

Correlating a Motivation-Activation Measure With Media Preference

This study investigates the relationship between individual differences in motivational system responsiveness and preferences for media genres and programming types. The Motivation Activation Measure (MAM) indexed the trait appetitive and aversive motivation system activation of 206 college-aged participants who subsequently responded to self-report scales designed to measure likelihood to use specific genres of television programming, radio formats, and video games. Predictions were made for the correlation between genre preferences and MAM scores based on a dual-activation model of motivational systems. Results suggest that initial media-selection behaviors may be predicted by conceptualizing genres according to their appeal from motivationally based attributes.

Avoiding the risk of responsibility by seeking uncertainty: Responsibility aversion and preference for indirect agency when choosing for others

Uncertainty-seeking behavior is currently understood as the result of loss aversion which motivates a preference for the possibility to avoid or lessen an otherwise sure loss. However, when choosing among negative options on behalf of others, we offer responsibility aversion as another possible motive for uncertainty-seeking behavior. Within our conceptual model, responsibility aversion is defined as the preference to minimize one's causal role in outcome generation. Compared to certain options, uncertain options lessen the decision maker's causal role in outcome generation because the outcomes are partially determined by chance. The presence of chance increases indirect agency on behalf of the decision maker and lessens his or her perceived risk of responsibility. The results of five studies support a responsibility aversion motivation behind uncertainty-seeking behavior.

Individual differences in depressive symptoms are associated with impaired incentive, but not aversive motivation

The emotion context insensitivity model asserts that depression is associated with deficits in emotional reactivity to positive and negative emotion cues. Although there is support for this formulation, discrepant findings have prioritized the identification of factors that lend themselves to greater or lesser model support. One such factor may be the measure used to index emotional reactivity. The current study hypothesized a specific pattern of divergence from model predictions when emotion modulated startle was used to index emotional reactivity. Forty-one undergraduates viewed a series of pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral pictures while the startle reflex was periodically elicited. Controlling for sex and trait anxiety, CES-D depression scores were unrelated to startle reactivity during viewing of unpleasant pictures (attack: r = −.01; contamination: r = .06), but positively correlated with startle reactivity during viewing of pleasant pictures (erotica: r = .33). These patterns represent intact reactivity to unpleasant emotion cues, but impaired reactivity to incentive-laden erotic cues, among individuals highest in depressive symptoms. Identical findings emerged when “depressed” and “nondepressed” groups, formed on the basis of CES-D clinical cutoffs, were examined. Results sharpen the theoretical utility of the ECI model and underscore the impairments in incentive motivation that characterize depressed mood.

Motives for Giving: A Reanalysis of Two Classic Public Goods Experiments

Experimental work in economics prompted the development of theories of other‐regarding behavior. In this article we reanalyze two classic public goods experiments and focus on the nature of individuals' responses to others' behavior in order to help distinguish alternative motives for giving, including altruism, warm glow, reciprocity, and inequality aversion. Analysis that allows for asymmetric feedback responses generates support for inequality aversion motives but little for reciprocity (matching), altruism, and warm glow. We conclude that individual‐level analysis of existing public goods data can provide more insightful, informative estimates of treatment effects.

Food-Evoked Changes in Humans

Two experiments investigate effects related to food intake in humans. In Experiment 1, we measured startle response modulation while study participants ate ice cream, yoghurt, and chocolate. Statistical analysis revealed that ice cream intake resulted in the most robust startle inhibition compared to no food. Contrasting females and males, we found significant differences related to the conditions yoghurt and chocolate. In females, chocolate elicited the lowest response amplitude followed by yoghurt and ice cream. In males, chocolate produced the highest startle response amplitude even higher than eating nothing, whereas ice cream produced the lowest. Assuming that high response amplitudes reflect aversive motivation while low response amplitudes reflect appetitive motivational states, it is interpreted that eating ice cream is associated with the most appetitive state given the alternatives of chocolate and yoghurt across gender. However, in females alone eating chocolate, and in males alone eating ice cream, led to the most appetitive state. Experiment 2 was conducted to describe food intake-related brain activity by means of source localization analysis applied to electroencephalography data (EEG). Ice cream, yoghurt, a soft drink, and water were compared. Brain activity in rostral portions of the superior frontal gyrus was found in all conditions. No localization differences between conditions occurred. While EEG was found to be insensitive, startle response modulation seems to be a reliable method to objectively quantify motivational states related to the intake of different foods.

Discrete Emotion and Motivation: Relative Activation in the Appetitive and Aversive Motivational Systems as a Function of Anger, Sadness, Fear, and Joy During Televised Information Campaigns

This study investigated whether predictable motivational activation in the appetitive and aversive systems underlies the production and experience of discrete emotions (anger, sadness, joy, and fear) experienced while viewing televised public service announcements. This study used both self-reports and physiological measures to index motivational activation and emotional experience. In the joy condition, physiological data provided moderate support for the prediction that strong appetitive motivational activation underlies the experience of joy but did not support the concurrent prediction of aversive motivational inhibition. However, the self-report data provided good evidence for both. In the fear condition, the self-report data supported the prediction of strong aversive and inhibited appetitive activation. The physiological data provide strong support for a highly activated aversive system but no support for an inhibited appetitive system. In the sadness condition, the self-report and physiological data supported the prediction that sadness is a moderately activated aversive condition. In the anger condition, the physiological data supported the prediction that anger is a coactive state with both aversive and appetitive activation. This study suggests that research on cognition, emotion, and motivation can benefit by blending findings and insights from both discrete and dimensional approaches to the study of emotion.

In utero methanesulfonyl fluoride differentially affects learning and maze performance in the absence of long-lasting cholinergic changes in the adult rat

There is increasing evidence that acetylcholinesterase (AChE) may have various specific developmental roles in brain development. Nevertheless, specific effects of AChE inhibition during early brain development have not been adequately described. Therefore, methanesulfonyl fluoride (MSF), an irreversible AChE inhibitor that shows high selectivity for the CNS was used to produce AChE inhibition in utero to study subsequent adult behaviors, sleep, and cholinergic markers. Rats exposed to MSF in utero showed a deficit in spatial learning tasks using appetitive motivation but, surprisingly, they performed equally well or better than controls when aversive motivation was used. One hypothesis was that MSF treatment in utero affected the response to stress. Tests of anxiety however showed no differences in basal levels of anxiety. Studies of sleep behavior, however, indicated a higher level of REM sleep which is only seen during the light phase of male rats exposed to MSF in utero as compared to controls. No differences in cholinergic markers in the brains of adults were found except that females exposed to MSF in utero had a higher level of ChAT activity in the synaptosomal fraction of the hippocampus. Even so, whether cholinergic alterations accompany the in utero MSF exposure remains to be determined. The failure to find widespread changes in cholinergic markers in the adult brains suggests changes in behaviors should be further investigated by testing the participation of postsynaptic mechanisms, measuring of cholinergic markers during earlier development periods and the possible participation of other neurotransmitter systems to clearly reveal the role of the cholinergic system following in utero MSF exposure.

Characteristics of differential inhibition during selection between food-related and aversive responses

The same stimulus (a flash of light at a frequency of 6 Hz) was used in dogs to develop a food-related conditioned reflex reinforced by attractive food and an aversive conditioned reflex (avoidance/escape from paw stimulation) and differential inhibition to it (unavoidable series). This was followed by alternate experiments with selection of reinforcement and use of a differential stimulus (at a frequency of 0.6 Hz). In both series of experiments, dogs showed changes in food-related excitability (hunger, saturation). The numbers of investigative responses arising in response to the differential and positive conditioned stimuli and their latent periods were recorded. In conditions allowing selection (with electrodes on the paw and a pedal before the animal), dogs were found to differ in the extent to which one of these motivations dominated. Differential inhibition was less complete in those no-choice series in which the dominant motivation was used. In conditions allowing selection between the food-related and aversive reactions, responses to the differential stimulus depended on the balance between these motivations: the food-related motivation dominated after two days of starvation, while the aversive motivation dominated after satiation.

Breaking Symmetry on Time

The habenular nuclei are a conserved relay center of telencephalic function, and they display bilateral asymmetry in many vertebrates. How this asymmetry is constructed in response to local lateralized cues remains poorly understood. A paper by Aizawa et al. (2007) in this issue of Developmental Cell highlights an unsuspected role for neuronal differentiation timing in the generation of structurally distinct left and right habenular nuclei.

Personality, behavioural and affective characteristics of hazardous drinkers

The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of appetitive and aversive motivation on hazardous drinking behaviour by drawing on Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (RST). A between-groups design examined differences between hazardous drinkers and matched controls on self-report and behavioural appetitive and aversive motivation. The relationship between motivational processes and changes in affective states following behavioural task performance was also examined. Data from 27 hazardous drinkers (M=21.88 years, SD=3.29) and 27 gender and age matched controls (M=21.85 years, SD=4.08) were utilised. The Card Arranging Reward Responsivity Objective Test (CARROT) assessed behavioural appetitive motivation and the computerised Q-TASK provided an index of behavioural aversive motivation. Self-report appetitive and aversive motivation was measured using the Sensitivity to Punishment and Reward Questionnaire (SPSRQ). Brief scales tapping state positive and negative affect were also administered. Hazardous drinkers were significantly higher than controls on self-report but not behavioural measures of appetitive motivation. Results also indicated that hazardous drinkers reported significantly higher levels of negative affect. These data suggest that hazardous drinkers are characterised by high trait appetitive motivation and state negative affect. It was suggested that RST may provide a useful framework for understanding both the appetitive and aversive motivational processes involved in drinking behaviour.

Appetitive position discrimination in the T-maze

This protocol details a method to perform appetitively motivated tasks in rodents to test cognitive ability. When testing cognition in animals, the simplest paradigms can potentially yield quick results with minimal investment from the experimenter. Although appetitively motivated tasks are generally learnt more slowly than aversively motivated ones, they may be essential for distinguishing the effects of a treatment on learning from its effects on aversive motivation per se. For example, if a treatment improves learning in both types of paradigm, this is better evidence that it affects cognition rather than sensorimotor processes. Rats and mice easily learn position discriminations in a T-maze, especially if multiple cues, such as different objects and floor textures in the goal arms, are provided. To start, the rodent is placed in the maze and it chooses an arm. This Trial 1, however, is the only one on which this arm will be rewarded. From now on, it must always choose the other arm. The rule is simple: for example, always turn left into the arm with diagonal black stripes on the walls and gravel glued to the floor. High levels of correct responding can be achieved within 20-40 trials. The test may therefore be particularly useful with animals of low cognitive ability, such as transgenic mice derived from some 129 or SJL strains. Once the animals are habituated, each trial should take approximately 1 min. Thus, to test ten animals for 40 trials would take around 7 h.

Appraisals cause experienced emotions: Experimental evidence

Recent theories claim appraisals cause emotions. But supporting evidence has been correlational or simulational, leaving doubt about direction of causality and the generalisability of these findings to actual emotional experiences. This study manipulated appraisals of motivational state (relating an event to appetitive vs. aversive motivation) and outcome probability (certain vs. uncertain), and found evidence for some (though not all) hypothesised effects on actual experiences of joy, relief, and hope: Events consistent with pleasure‐maximising goals gave rise to joy; events consistent with pain‐minimising goals and certain to occur produced relief; and events consistent with pleasure‐maximising goals but uncertain led to hope. These findings provide experimental evidence that appraisals do cause experienced emotions.

Personality, expectations, and response strategies in multiple‐choice question examinations in university students: a test of Gray's hypotheses

The relation between personality and type of error made in multiple‐choice examinations when correction for guessing is applied was investigated across two studies. Our general hypothesis was that disinhibited subjects (those scoring high on the Sensitivity to Reward (SR) scale and/or low on the Sensitivity to Punishment (SP) scale) would make more incorrect responses and fewer omission errors (blanks) than inhibited subjects (those with high SP and/or low SR scores). The meta‐analyses of 19 examinations in study 1 confirmed our hypotheses for SP, SR, and extraversion. Regression analyses on effect sizes revealed that SP differences were obtained in examinations with low marks, whereas SR differences were obtained in examinations with more responses and fewer questions. Study 2 showed that a low‐mark expectation increased omissions in high‐SP subjects, whereas a high‐mark expectation increased incorrect responses in high‐SR subjects. These results suggest two different mechanisms mediating inhibition/disinhibition: one associated with aversive motivation, and the other with appetitive motivation. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Personality and responses to appetitive and aversive stimuli: the joint influence of behavioural approach and behavioural inhibition systems

Gray’s reinforcement sensitivity theory (RST) posits two separable neurological systems involved in the regulation of personality and behaviour. The behavioural approach and inhibition systems facilitate the expression of appetitive (impulsive-sensation seeking traits) and aversive motivation (anxiety traits), respectively. Inconsistent findings regarding associations between measures of personality and behavioural responses to appetitive and aversive stimuli has led to a modification of RST including the notion that, rather than separable as first hypothesised, the two systems jointly influence behaviour. The current study was designed to investigate this proposal with an additional focus on the role of reinforcement expectancies. Seventy-eight participants completed two questionnaire measures of BIS/BAS activity (EPQ-R, SPSRQ) and two behavioural measures (Q-TASK, Card Arranging Reward Responsivity Objective Task). Findings were in general consistent with the original separable systems approach, however they also showed that aversive responses were highest in high BAS/high BIS individuals, thus suggesting an interactive account of BIS/BAS processes. Further, stronger positive correlations between self-report BAS traits and behavioural reward responsiveness were found for participants who perceived the task as more rewarding than initially expected. Discussion focuses on the role of reward expectancies and on the issue regarding separable vs. joint BIS/BAS systems.

Glutamate motivational ensembles in nucleus accumbens: rostrocaudal shell gradients of fear and feeding.

This study demonstrates that microinjection of an AMPA/kainate glutamate antagonist elicits motivated fear and feeding behaviour mapped along rostrocaudal gradients of positive-to-negative valence in nucleus accumbens shell (similar to rostrocaudal shell gradients recently reported for GABA agonist microinjections). Rats received rostral or caudal microinjections of the glutamate AMPA/kainate receptor antagonist DNQX (0, 50, 450 or 850 ng in 0.5 micro L) or the NMDA receptor antagonist MK-801 (0, 0.5, 1 or 2 micro g in 0.5 micro L), into medial accumbens shell prior to behavioural tests for fear, feeding or conditioning of place preference or avoidance. Another group received rostral or caudal microinjections of DNQX in nucleus accumbens core. Rostral shell DNQX microinjections potently increased appetitive food intake and established only weak conditioned place avoidance. Caudal shell DNQX microinjections elicited defensive treading behaviour, caused rats to defensively bite the experimenter and emit fearful distress vocalizations when handled, and established strong conditioned place avoidance. By contrast, no rostrocaudal gradients of motivational bivalence were produced by microinjections of the glutamate AMPA/kainate receptor antagonist DNQX into the core, or by microinjections of the NMDA antagonist MK-801 into the shell. Our results indicate that appetitive and aversive motivation is carried in anatomically differentiated channels by mesocorticolimbic glutamate signals to microcircuits in the medial shell. Hyperpolarization of local shell ensembles by AMPA/kainate glutamate receptor blockade elicits fear and feeding behaviours mapped along distinct positive-to-negative rostrocaudal gradients.

Development of the behavioral inhibition system/behavioral approach system scales

The purpose of present studies was to create brief self-report scales to assess individual differences in the sensitivity of two neurological self-regulatory systems; one is the behavioral inhibition system (BIS) which bears on aversive motivation, and the other is the behavioral approach system (BAS) which bears on appetitive motivation. Scale development was reported in study 1, and convergent and discriminant validation using alternative measures of similar constructs was reported in study 2. In study 3, positive and negative affect was manipulated in a controlled setting. Results were consistent with the hypothesis that participants with higher BIS sensitivity would show heightened emotional reactivity to negative mood induction, whereas higher BAS sensitivity would show heightened reactivity to positive mood induction. Furthermore, results indicated that higher BAS sensitivity not only inhibited negative affect in response to negative mood induction but also facilitated recovery from negative mood states. These results suggested that abnormal sensitivity of either system may be a vulnerability factor of psychopathology, when specific situational cues are present.

Mice (Mus musculus) learn a win-shift but not a win-stay contingency under water escape motivation.

Twenty mice (Mus musculus), the second filial generation offspring from a C57BL/6 and DBA/2J cross, received spatial win-shift and win-stay water escape training within a mixed design in which all mice received both types of training. Acquisition under win-shift was superior to win-stay with respect to errorless trials and latencies regardless of the order in which the procedures were experienced. Win-stay responding did not exceed chance levels during any training phase. These data contradict the claim that win-stay training is the more easily acquired of the 2 acquisition strategies under aversive motivation.

EEG asymmetry: relationship to mood and risk for alcoholism in Mission Indian youth

Background: Left frontal electroencephalogram (EEG) alpha dominance has been hypothesized to be related to depressed mood as well as aversive motivation and emotion. However, few studies have prospectively evaluated electroencephalogram asymmetry during development in high-risk adolescents and children. Methods: EEG alpha asymmetry was investigated in 134 Mission Indian children who were between 7 and 13 years of age. The relationships between electroencephalogram alpha asymmetry and age, gender, parental history of alcohol dependence, Native American heritage, and mood/approach behaviors were explored. Results: No significant relationship was found between frontal alpha asymmetry and age, gender, or behavioral measures of depressed mood and/or approach behaviors. However, participants with ≥50% Native American heritage were significantly more likely to have greater electroencephalogram alpha power in the left frontal cortex than in the right. Conclusions: The present findings suggest that the hypothesized relationship between EEG alpha asymmetry and measures of depressed mood, aversive motivation, and emotion may not be universal in all age or ethnic groups. Additionally, though the relationship between greater degrees of Native American heritage and alpha asymmetry are not as yet clear, we suggest it may be more related to substance abuse than depression in this population of Mission Indians.