How emotion context modulates unconscious goal activation during motor force exertion

Abstract

A B S T R A C TPriming participants with emotional or action-related concepts influences goal formation and motor force output during effort exertion tasks, even without awareness of priming information. However, little is known about neural processes underpinning how emotional cues interact with action (or inaction) goals to motivate (or demotivate) motor behaviour. In a novel functional neuroimaging paradigm, visible emotional images followed by subliminal action or inaction word primes were presented before participants performed a maximal force exertion. In neutral emotional contexts, maximum force was lower following inaction than action primes. However, arousing emotional images had interactive motivational effects on the motor system: Unpleasant images prior to inaction primes increased force output (enhanced effort exertion) relative to control primes, and engaged a motivation-related network involving ventral striatum, extended amygdala, as well as right inferior frontal cortex. Conversely, pleasant images presented before action (versus control) primes decreased force and activated regions of the default-mode network, including inferior parietal lobule and medial prefrontal cortex. These findings show that emotional context can determine how unconscious goal representations influence motivational processes and are transformed into actual motor output, without direct rewarding contingencies. Furthermore, they provide insight into altered motor behaviour in psychopathological disorders with dysfunctional motivational processes.

The Oxytocinergic System as a Mediator of Anti-stress and Instorative Effects Induced by Nature: The Calm and Connection Theory

“…The clusters we described above ( Figure 1 ) consist of experiences of visual impressions, temperature, smells, and sounds that together form units. The point of departure for our argumentation about instorative effects is that people experience the world through their bodies, with all their senses and where most of their experiences occur unconsciously, subliminally ( Eimera and Schlaghecken, 2003 ; Kiesel et al, 2007 ; Blakemore et al, 2017 ). Scents, temperature, sounds, and other sensory impressions are found to be crucial if a human being feels security and confidence in the environment, or the opposite, finds discomfort and threats ( Fontaine et al, 2001 ; Appukuttan, 2016 ).…”

Different Effects of 2 mA and 4 mA Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation on Muscle Activity and Torque in a Maximal Isokinetic Fatigue Task

“…Both performance fatigability and perception of fatigue may result in sub-optimal motor commands, and the tDCS stimulation may have contributed to these effects. Similarly, another potential explanation for the different torque productions and EMG activities between the stimulation conditions could be that tDCS differently affected the motivation of individual subjects to achieve maximal effort for each contraction, via modulation of frontal cortex activity (Schmidt et al, 2009 ; Blakemore et al, 2017 ). In this regard, stimulation-related discomfort induced by tDCS during the FT might have negatively affected the subjects’ concentration on producing and maintaining maximal efforts during the task.…”

The Effects of Subliminal Goal Priming on Emotional Response Inhibition in Cases of Major Depression

“…In the automotive model, when goals or norms referring to regulating emotions are formed in one's mind, they can be activated without one's awareness and influence a related response (Gollwitzer and Bargh, 2005; Bargh and Williams, 2007;Bargh et al, 2012). In many studies, subliminal goal priming has been adopted to promote goal-related behavioral responses on the unconscious level, without substantial cognitive effort from participants (Bargh et al, 2001;Légal et al, 2012;Blakemore et al, 2017). For example, Blakemore et al (2017) found that both subliminal priming of the goal of tense (frail/tense/abstract) and emotional context modulated unconscious goal activation when participants conducted motor force exertion.…”

“…In many studies, subliminal goal priming has been adopted to promote goal-related behavioral responses on the unconscious level, without substantial cognitive effort from participants (Bargh et al, 2001;Légal et al, 2012;Blakemore et al, 2017). For example, Blakemore et al (2017) found that both subliminal priming of the goal of tense (frail/tense/abstract) and emotional context modulated unconscious goal activation when participants conducted motor force exertion. Another study found that subliminally priming individuals to be trusting leads to a better evaluation of persuasive messages, increases behavioral intentions in accordance with the message, and positively influences the assessment of the source (Légal et al, 2012).…”