Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité - Universitaetsmedizin Berlin, Charitéplatz 1, 10117 Berlin, Germany; Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Luisenstraße 56, 10117 Berlin, Germany; Department of Psychology, Humboldt Universitaet zu Berlin, Rudower Chaussee 18, 12489 Berlin, Germany; Berlin Center for Advanced Neuroimaging, Charité - Universitaetsmedizin, 10119 Berlin, Germany.
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité - Universitaetsmedizin Berlin, Charitéplatz 1, 10117 Berlin, Germany; Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Luisenstraße 56, 10117 Berlin, Germany; Berlin Center for Advanced Neuroimaging, Charité - Universitaetsmedizin, 10119 Berlin, Germany.
Neuroimage. 2015 May 1;111:549-61. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.02.047. Epub 2015 Feb 27.
Attentional control in demanding cognitive tasks can be improved by manipulating the motivational state. Motivation to obtain gains and motivation to avoid losses both usually result in faster reaction times and stronger activation in relevant brain areas such as the prefrontal cortex, but little is known about differences in the underlying neurocognitive mechanisms of these types of motivation in an attentional control context. In the present functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we tested whether potential gain and loss as motivating incentives lead to overlapping or distinct neural effects in the attentional network, and whether one of these conditions is more effective than the other. A Flanker task with word stimuli as targets and distracters was performed by 115 healthy participants. Using a mixed blocked and event-related design allowed us to investigate transient and sustained motivation-related effects. Participants could either gain money (potential gain) or avoid losing money (potential loss) in different task blocks. Participants showed a congruency effect with increased reaction times for incongruent compared to congruent trials. Potential gain led to generally faster responses compared to the neutral condition and to stronger improvements than potential loss. Potential loss also led to shorter response times compared to the neutral condition, but participants improved mainly during incongruent and not during congruent trials. The event-related fMRI data revealed a main effect of congruency with increased activity in the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and inferior frontal junction area (IFJ), the pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA), bilateral insula, intraparietal sulcus (IPS) and visual word form area (VWFA). While potential gain led to increased activity in a cluster of the IFJ and the VWFA only during incongruent trials, potential loss was linked to activity increases in these regions during incongruent and congruent trials. The block analysis revealed greater activity in gain and loss blocks compared to the neutral condition in most of these regions but no differences in the direct comparison of gain and loss blocks. These findings show that potential monetary gain and loss rely on different mechanisms: Gain was more effective in reducing the reaction time compared to potential loss. Brain data indicate that in the gain context attentional control is executed specifically in incongruent trials, whereas the loss context induces an unspecific increase of attentional control. These findings extend previous studies by providing evidence for diverging neural mechanisms for the effects of different types of motivation on attentional control, specifying the underlying activity patterns in task- and stimulus-related regions.
在要求苛刻的认知任务中，注意力控制可以通过操纵动机状态来提高。获得收益的动机和避免损失的动机通常都会导致反应时间更快，并且相关大脑区域（如前额叶皮层）的激活更强，但在注意力控制背景下，这两种动机类型的潜在神经认知机制的差异知之甚少。在本项功能磁共振成像（fMRI）研究中，我们测试了潜在的收益和损失作为激励因素是否会在注意力网络中产生重叠或不同的神经效应，以及这些条件中的一种是否比另一种更有效。使用作为目标和干扰物的单词刺激，115 名健康参与者执行了 Flanker 任务。使用混合的块和事件相关设计使我们能够研究瞬态和持续的动机相关效应。参与者可以在不同的任务块中获得金钱（潜在收益）或避免损失金钱（潜在损失）。与一致试验相比，参与者在不一致试验中表现出了更高的反应时的一致性效应。与中性条件相比，潜在收益导致的反应通常更快，并且比潜在损失的改进更大。潜在损失也导致与中性条件相比反应时间更短，但参与者主要在不一致试验中而不是在一致试验中提高。事件相关 fMRI 数据显示，随着左额下回（IFG）和额下回连接区（IFJ）、补充运动前区（pre-SMA）、双侧岛叶、顶内沟（IPS）和视觉词形区（VWFA）活动的增加，出现了一致性的主要效应。虽然潜在收益仅在不一致试验中导致 IFJ 簇和 VWFA 的活动增加，但潜在损失与这些区域在不一致和一致试验中的活动增加有关。块分析显示，与中性条件相比，在大多数这些区域中，收益和损失块的活动都有所增加，但在收益和损失块的直接比较中没有差异。这些发现表明，潜在的货币收益和损失依赖于不同的机制：与潜在损失相比，收益在降低反应时间方面更有效。脑数据表明，在收益情境中，注意力控制是在不一致的试验中执行的，而在损失情境中，注意力控制会产生非特异性的增加。这些发现通过提供不同类型的动机对注意力控制的影响存在不同的神经机制的证据，扩展了以前的研究，具体说明了任务和刺激相关区域的潜在活动模式。
