The Neurobiology of Motivation and Reward

Abstract

PrefaceThis book was conceived many years ago as an abstract goal for a father-son team when the father was working in university administration and the son was just getting into the academic business. Eventually, the father returned to the laboratory, the son began to get his feet on the ground, and the goal became concrete. Now the work is finished, and our book enters the literature as, we hope, a valuable contribution to understanding the terribly complex and subtle problem of the neurobiology of motivated behaviors.We would also like the book to stand as a personal mark of a cooperative relationship between father and son. This special relationship between the authors gave us an extra dimension of pleasure in writing the book, and it would delight us if it gave anyone else an extra dimension of enjoyment from reading it. One thing we hope happens is that anyone considering a similar partnership, or simply considering entering similar fields, will take the existence of this book as encouragement. Such relationships are highly satisfying if both parties take care to protect the partnership.When we actually sat down to write the book, we were humbled by the immense literature and the smallness of both our conceived space for putting it down and of our brains for processing all the information. In some places, we consciously did not discuss a particular study or area of literature. Certainly, there are also papers we have forgotten to cite or of which we are unaware. Therefore, we invite you to write to us with your suggestions if you feel some important work or a body of literature is neglected.We would like to acknowledge the many people who helped us with Vlll Preface

The Influence of Expected Value on Saccadic Preparation

“…Some blocks of trials resulted in larger total earnings for the subjects (e.g., 0.9 reward probability and 0.9 reward magnitude to the T 1 compared with 0.9 reward probability and 0.1 reward magnitude to T 1 ). A higher amount of money per trial could result in a higher motivation level and conceivably lead to an increase in overall saccadic preparation (Stellar and Stellar, 1985). Unlike the other top-down factors described above, motivation was associated with a block of trials and not spatially associated with each target.…”

Neuronal Activity Dependent on Anticipated and Elapsed Delay in Macaque Prefrontal Cortex, Frontal and Supplementary Eye Fields, and Premotor Cortex

“…Monkeys perform with greater speed and accuracy when a more valued reward is expected (Hassani et al 2001;Hollerman et al 1998;Kawagoe et al 1998Kawagoe et al , 2004Kobayashi et al 2002;Lauwereyns et al 2002a,b;Leon and Shadlen 1999;Musallam et al 2004;Roesch andOlson 2003, 2004;Takikawa et al 2002;Tremblay et al 1998;Watanabe 1990;Watanabe et al 2001) just as rats run faster for a higher concentration of sucrose (Stellar 1982). This indicates that neural processes underlying response preparation and execution are enhanced when motivation is high (Stellar and Stellar 1985). In the present experiment, speed and accuracy measures were not appropriate indicators of motivational level because they were influenced by elapsed delay as distinct from anticipated delay.…”

Update on neuropharmacological treatments for alcoholism: Scientific basis and clinical findings

“…SSRIs do suppress food intake [153,154] and fluid consumption [152] and decrease palatability [155]. Yet, motivational factors exert some control on the expression of these behaviors [156]. For instance, SSRIs enhance satiety [150] but selectively reduce preference for certain macronutrients (i.e., sweet items and carbohydrates) [157][158][159] cf.…”