Mechanisms of Motivation

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Motivation and Incentives
❚ Motivation - factors within and outside an
organism that cause it to behave a certain
way at a certain time
❚ Motivational state or drive - an internal
condition, which can change over time, that
orients an individual to a specific set of goals
(e.g., hunger, thirst, sex, curiosity)
❚ Incentives - goals or reinforcers in the
external environment (e.g., good grades,
food, a mate)

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Drives as Tissue Needs
❚ Homeostasis - the constancy of internal
conditions that the body must actively
maintain
❚ Drives may be an upset in homeostasis,
inducing behavior to correct the imbalance
❚ Animals do behave in accordance with their
tissue needs (e.g., increasing or decreasing
caloric intake, drive for salt)
❚ However, homeostasis cannot explain all
drives

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Types of Drives

❚ Regulatory drives - helps preserve

homeostasis (e.g., hunger, thirst,
oxygen)
❚ Nonregulatory drives - serve other
purposes (e.g., sex, achievement)

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Drives as
States of the Brain
❚ Central state theory of drives -
different drives correspond to neural
activity in different sets of neurons in
the brain
❚ Central drive system - set of neurons in
which activity constitutes a drive

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Drives as
States of the Brain

❚ Techniques Connecting Socket

for studying
central drive Electrode
systems
include
lesions and Brain
stimulation

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Drives as
States of the Brain

Cerebral cortex

Hypotahlamus
❚ The hub of
Portion of
many central
drive systems limbic system

lies in the
hypothalamus
Pituitary

gland
Brainstem

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Hunger Drive

❚ Two areas of the

hypothalamus,
the lateral and Hypothalamus

ventromedial
areas, play a
central role in
the hunger drive

Hypothalamus

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Lateral Area
❚ Electrical lesions to
tract of axons
connecting
brainstem, Hypothalamus
hypothalamus and
basal ganglia cause
a loss of all goal-
directed behavior
❚ Stimulation causes
drives in response to
available incentives Hypothalamus

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Lateral Area
❚ However,
chemical lesions
to specific cell
Hypothalamus
bodies reduce
hunger drive, but
do not abolish it -
most other drives
appear normal

Hypothalamus

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Ventromedial Area
❚ Lesions alter
digestive and
metabolic
processes Hypothalamus
❚ Food is converted
into fat rather than
energy molecules,
causing animal to
eat much more
than normal and
gain weight Hypothalamus

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Hunger Drive
❚ Other stimuli that act on the brain to
increase or decrease hunger include
❙ satiety signals from the stomach
❙ signals indicating the amount of food
molecules in the blood
❙ leptin, a hormone indicating the amount of
fat in the body
❙ the appetizer effect

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Research on Weight
Regulation and Dieting
❚ No consistent personality trait differences
found between obese and non-obese people
(e.g., willpower, anxiety)
❚ Dieters and obese are more likely to eat in
response to stress than non-dieters
❚ Family environment of little importance in
determining body weight - genetics plays a
large role
❚ Number of fat-storage cells is a major
determinant of body weight

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Research on Weight
Regulation and Dieting
❚ Fat cells are determined by genetics and food intake
❚ They increase with weight gain, but merely shrink
with weight loss - may stimulate hunger
❚ Weight loss causes a decline in basal metabolism

Fat cells

Normal High-fat Return to

diet diet normal diet 14

Effects of Culture and
Habits on Body Weight
❚ Settling point - cluster of genetic and
environmental factors that cause a person’s
weight to settle within a given range
❚ Weight can be affected by factors like diet,
exercise, and daily habits (e.g., stairs instead
of elevator)

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Sex Drive

❚ Increased production
of testosterone and 600
First sexual
estrogen at puberty 500 attraction in
is responsible for both sexes

physical 400
differentiation
300
❚ Increased secretion
of DHEA, primary
Final maturation
200
of testes in males
adrenal sex hormone, 100 Final maturation

is responsible for of ovaries in females

sexual feelings 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Age (in years)
Females Males

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Male Sex Drive

❚ Testosterone
maintains sex drive
in adult males
❙ castration decreases
drive
❙ testosterone
injections or
implantation to
medial preoptic area
restores drive

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Female Sex Drive
❚ Estrous cycle controls
drive in nonhuman
mammals
❙ removal of ovaries
abolishes drive, while
hormone injections
restore it
❚ Also, lesions to
ventromedial area
abolish drive, while
injection or
implantation restores
drive

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Female Sex Drive

❚ Female monkeys and apes depend less

on hormones for sexual behavior
❚ Human female sex drive may not be
consistently affected by hormone
cycle at all
❙ ovarian hormones play small role
❙ adrenal hormones like DHEA and
testosterone play larger role

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Early Effects of Testosterone
❚ Presence of testosterone during critical
period will cause rudimentary genitals of
fetus to develop into male structures
❚ Testosterone acts in brain to promote
development of neural systems for male sex
drive and inhibit systems for female drive
❚ Absence causes development of female
structures
❚ Stressful events experienced by pregnant
rats reduce level of prenatal testosterone

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Human Sexual Orientation
❚ Orientation is an early-emerging, ingrained
aspect of the self that probably does not
change
❚ No consistent relationship between
orientation and childhood experiences (e.g.,
parenting, abuse, sexual experience)
❚ Controversial findings suggest a possible
relationship among prenatal stress,
androgens, and the development of brain
systems that play a role in sexual attraction

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Reward Pathways in the
Brain
❚ Medial forebrain bundle runs from the
midbrain through the lateral area of the
hypothalamus into the nucleus
accumbens in the basal ganglia
❙ neurons in this tract secrete dopamine
❙ animals will self-stimulate this pathway
❙ euphoria-producing drugs affect the level of
dopamine in this tract
❙ evolved to promote survival and
reproduction

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