The role of the dorsoanterior striatum in implicit motivation: the case of the need for power

Abstract

Implicit motives like the need for power (nPower) scale affective responses to need-specific rewards or punishments and thereby influence activity in motivational-brain structures. In this paper, we review evidence specifically supporting a role of the striatum in nPower. Individual differences in nPower predict (1) enhanced implicit learning accuracy, but not speed, on serial-response tasks that are reinforced by power-related incentives (e.g., winning or losing a contest; dominant or submissive emotional expressions) in behavioral studies and (2) activation of the anterior caudate in response to dominant emotional expressions in brain imaging research. We interpret these findings on the basis of Hikosaka et al.'s (2002a) model of central mechanisms of motor skill learning. The model assigns a critical role to the dorsoanterior striatum in dopamine-driven learning of spatial stimulus sequences. Based on this model, we suggest that the dorsoanterior striatum is the locus of nPower-dependent reinforcement. However, given the centrality of this structure in a wide range of motivational pursuits, we also propose that activity in the dorsoanterior striatum may not only reflect individual differences in nPower, but also in other implicit motives, like the need for achievement or the need for affiliation, provided that the proper incentives for these motives are present during reinforcement learning. We discuss evidence in support of such a general role of the dorsoanterior striatum in implicit motivation.

Open Peer Commentary and Author'S Response

“…Donhauser, Rösch, & Schultheiss, 2015;Wang, Liu, & Yan, 2014b) and the acquisition and execution of behaviour aimed at maximizing one's own influence on others and minimizing others' influence on oneself (e.g. Schultheiss & Schiepe-Tiska, 2013;Stoeckart, Strick, Bijleveld, & Aarts, 2016. Similarly, nAffiliation predicts sensitivity for others' signals of friendliness or distance (Kordik, Eska, & Schultheiss, 2012), non-verbal behaviour in social interaction situations (Hagemayer, Dufner, & Dennissen, 2016), and negative emotional responses to social isolation (Hofer & Busch, 2011).…”

The implicit power motive predicts action selection

“…As people with a high implicit need for power ( n Power) hold a desire to influence, control and impress others (Fodor, 2010), they respond relatively positively to faces signaling submissiveness. This notion is corroborated by research showing that n Power predicts greater activation of the reward circuitry after viewing faces signaling submissiveness (Schultheiss & Schiepe-Tiska, 2013), as well as increased attention towards faces signaling submissiveness (Schultheiss & Hale, 2007; Schultheiss, Wirth, Waugh, Stanton, Meier, & Reuter-Lorenz, 2008). Indeed, previous research has indicated that the relationship between n Power and motivated actions towards faces signaling submissiveness can be susceptible to learning effects (Schultheiss & Rohde, 2002; Schultheiss, Wirth, Torges, Pang, Villacorta, & Welsh, 2005a).…”

“…This theory argues, amongst others, that n Power predicts the incentive value of faces diverging in signaled dominance level. Studies that have supported this notion have shown that n Power is positively associated with the recruitment of the brain’s reward circuitry (especially the dorsoanterior striatum) after viewing relatively submissive faces (Schultheiss & Schiepe-Tiska, 2013), and predicts implicit learning as a result of, recognition speed of, and attention towards faces diverging in signaled dominance level (Donhauser et al, 2015; Schultheiss & Hale, 2007; Schultheiss et al, 2005b, 2008). The current studies extend the behavioral evidence for this idea by observing similar learning effects for the predictive relationship between n Power and action selection.…”

Intrinsic prefrontal organization underlies associations between achievement motivation and delay discounting

“…Previous neuroimaging studies have shown that regions from two interacting neural circuits are vital for achievement motivation: the striatum, insula, medial orbitofrontal cortices (mOFC), medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and precuneus from valuation system (Mizuno et al 2008;Schultheiss et al 2008;Schultheiss and Schiepe-Tiska 2013;Takeuchi et al 2014), and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) involved in integrating motivation and cognition (Pochon et al 2002;Taylor et al 2004) from cognitive control system. The neural model underlying delay discounting has also been proposed according to its different subprocesses (Peters and Büchel 2011;Frost and McNaughton 2017), which mainly consist of the valuation network, including the mPFC, mOFC and ventral striatum (VS), and the cognitive control network, including the dlPFC and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) (McClure et al 2004;Hariri et al 2006;Kable and Glimcher 2007;Luo et al 2009;Figner et al 2010a;Hare et al 2014).…”