What is motivation?
To start off let’s frame it as the purpose one has to take certain action or the energy required by someone to behave in a certain way. But can we link all actions that we take to motivation?
Motivation is not fixed. Which means to say here is no fixed level of motivation for every individual and neither it can be that people are unmotivated in true sense. It’s better to see in the perspective that one may be more motivated to do certain work over some other activity. And its also true that there is no strong correlation between enjoyment and motivation. We might not enjoy something but we might be strongly motivated to do the thing. Like drinking green tea — I don’t enjoy any single drop of that miserable drink but I need to take to get me to shape and I am motivated to do it. So while we may not like the process but we like the end goal. And that keeps up kicking. Good grades — people like a sure did never enjoy the rigors and grinds of the studying long hours but might be the end goal of good grades- the gifts that follows — admission to good college — might be that’s what kept us going. More importantly motivation is not a momentary thing or a possession it’s a process which is driven by the purpose. It is this clearly defined purpose that gives us the energy to act or be in the process. So we need to be very clear in what we are going to gain in order to have be motivated to do something.
Having said all this, what is motivation to our brain? How does our brain see, understand, process motivation?
As discussed earlier — purpose and end goal is the driving point of motivation and thereby actions associated with it. And what is this end goal — its a reward. To frame it otherwise, humans and thereby human brains are triggered by rewards. Greedy !!! ( we can look into the more philosophical side of this sometime later :)) But does our brain understand reward? How does our brain compute the value of a reward? And even if it can how is that translated into action?
The answer lies in the brain circuitry known as the “reward system.”
Our brain systems are built over time, starting from the time we were born. The neural circuits and structures in our brain are a culmination of the interactions between our past experiences and our genes. They together influence how our motivation systems develop and how they function later in life.
The regions of the brain making up the “reward system” use the neurotransmitter dopamine to communicate. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter. It is a chemical messenger that helps in the transmission of signals in the brain and other vital areas. Dopamine is found in humans as well as animals, including both vertebrates and invertebrates. Dopamine-producing neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) communicate with neurons in the nucleus accumbens in order to evaluate rewards and motivate us to obtain them. Neurons that release dopamine are activated when we expect to receive a reward. Dopamine also enhances our reward-related memories. It strengthens synapses in the hippocampus — brain’s learning and memory center, in the amygdala — the brain's emotion center — and regions involved in planning and reasoning — the prefrontal cortex — also creates emotional associations with rewards.
However its worth mentioning its not the reward but the expectation of the reward that mostly influences emotion, reactions, memory and motivation. Reward learning is also a very important concept, it occurs when the actual reward differs from what was expected. When the reward is greater than anticipated, dopamine signaling increases and vice versa. Interestingly when the reward matches the predicted one there is no new learning and hence correct prediction does not alter dopamine signaling. Reward learning and motivation are strongly influenced by the amygdala. Some people’s brains` respond more strongly to rewards than punishments, while for some others its the punishment, which goes to say dopamine responses vary from person to person. Researchers have shown the “go-getters” have greater dopamine signaling in the striatum and prefrontal cortex — two areas known to impact motivation and reward. Decision making involves rewards and risks. Emotionally centered decision-making changes with age — possibly because the lateral prefrontal cortex, responsible for self-regulation, matures gradually. In case of teens they engage in more risky behaviors because their brains are still maturing and peer pressure. While in case of older adults might also make more risky decisions, as prefrontal cortex function diminishes with age.
So some of the key components involved in brain and its processing of motivation are
- Amygdala : “Emotion Trigger” — quickly assesses incoming information from the environment and activates either flight — fight (approach or avoidance) behaviors. Amygdala is critical for threat detection and learned fear.
- Dopamine Pathways : Dopamine modulates neural activity when a rewarding event has occurred. Increases in dopamine reinforce the behaviors that elicited the reward. This leads the individuals to seek out and learn from new experiences all in anticipation of a positive outcome. This is the most important factor in “wanting”.
- Hippocampus : Our Memory Center
- Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC) : “Behavior Tracker” — monitors the environment as well as one’s own behavior and others’ (such as social exclusion). This region sounds the alarm when behavior needs to be modified, mobilizing regions in the prefrontal cortex involved in selfregulation and decision-making.
- Prefrontal Cortex : “Control Unit” — manages all decision making, to behavioral control to planning to self-regulation.
- Nucleus Accumbens : “Reward Anticipator” — critical for reward based decision making— evaluates stimuli that produce wanting or liking responses. This structure also plays an vital role in learning from feedback and in reward-based decision-making.
- Substantia Nigra/Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA) : “Dopamine Distributors” — produces dopamine and delivers it to other regions of the brain that are involved in motor function and in motivating and rewarding behaviors.
- Raphe Nuclei : “Serotonin Distributors” — produce the neurotransmitter serotonin and deliver it to a wide network of circuits across the brain, including structures related to motivation, reward, and threat detection.
- Serotonin Pathways : A key factor in “liking,” serotonin combines with other neurochemicals to convey euphoria and has the widest distribution in the brain. Serotonin modulates a wide array of behaviors, including as a major influence on emotional states, sleep cycles, eating, and other rewarding behaviors.
And how?
- Our experiences trigger neurons in certain regions of our brain, including the Prefrontal Cortex, the Anterior Cingulate Cortex, the Hippocampus, to send neurotransmitters / chemical such as Dopamine and Serotonin to other neurons in different regions.
- Repeated experiences create different pathways in the brain that link these experiences to our thoughts ,memories and behaviors.
- These pathways create powerful associations between- what we do and the memories of how that event made us feel physically and emotionally in the past . This is done by the Amygdala, the emotion center. And this drives our behavior (managed by the Prefrontal Cortex and Anterior Cingulate Cortex).
- We humans are subsequently motivated to repeat those experiences that made us feel good, and to avoid those that made us feel bad (as evaluated by the Nucleus Accumbens)
The brain’s reward system reinforces behaviors that are associated with rewards and prevents behaviors that leads to punishment.
