Wurm F, van der Ham I J M, Schomaker J
Health, Medical & Neuropsychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Behav Brain Sci. 2025 Jan 31;48:e49. doi: 10.1017/S0140525X24000566.
Although higher-level constructs often fail to explain the mechanisms underlying motivation, we argue that purely mechanistic approaches have limitations. Lower-level neural data help us identify "biologically plausible" mechanisms, while higher-level constructs are critical to formulate measurable behavioral outcomes when constructing computational models. Therefore, we propose that a multi-level, multi-measure approach is required to fully unpack the black box of motivated behavior.
