Motivation and cognitive control in depression.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Grahek I
PROVIDER: S-EPMC6642074 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Motor and cognitive deficits in Parkinson's disease (PD) have been argued to reflect motivational deficits. In prior work, however, we have shown that motivation of cognitive control is paradoxically potentiated rather than impaired in Parkinson's disease. This is particularly surprising given the fact that Parkinson's disease is often accompanied by depression, a prototypical disorder of motivation. To replicate our previous finding and assess the effects of depression, we investigated performance of PD patients with (n = 22) and without depression (history) (n = 23) and age-matched healthy controls (n = 23) on a task specifically designed to measure the effect of reward motivation on task-switching. We replicated previous findings by showing contrasting effects of reward motivation on task-switching in PD patients and age-matched healthy controls. While the promise of high versus low reward improved task-switching in PD, it tended to impair task-switching in age-matched healthy controls. There were no effects of a depression (history) diagnosis in PD patients. These findings reinforce prior observations that Parkinson's disease is accompanied by enhanced incentive motivation of cognitive control and highlight the potential of incentive motivational strategies for overcoming cognitive deficits in Parkinson's disease.
| S-EPMC6175070 | biostudies-literature
Project description:It is becoming increasingly appreciated that affective and/or motivational influences contribute strongly to goal-oriented cognition and behavior. An unresolved question is whether emotional manipulations (i.e., direct induction of affectively valenced subjective experience) and motivational manipulations (e.g., delivery of performance-contingent rewards and punishments) have similar or distinct effects on cognitive control. Prior work has suggested that reward motivation can reliably enhance a proactive mode of cognitive control, whereas other evidence is suggestive that positive emotion improves cognitive flexibility, but reduces proactive control. However, a limitation of the prior research is that reward motivation and positive emotion have largely been studied independently. Here, we directly compared the effects of positive emotion and reward motivation on cognitive control with a tightly matched, within-subjects design, using the AX-continuous performance task paradigm, which allows for relative measurement of proactive versus reactive cognitive control. High-resolution pupillometry was employed as a secondary measure of cognitive dynamics during task performance. Robust increases in behavioral and pupillometric indices of proactive control were observed with reward motivation. The effects of positive emotion were much weaker, but if anything, also reflected enhancement of proactive control, a pattern that diverges from some prior findings. These results indicate that reward motivation has robust influences on cognitive control, while also highlighting the complexity and heterogeneity of positive-emotion effects. The findings are discussed in terms of potential neurobiological mechanisms.
| S-EPMC4072919 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Humans are social creatures and, as such, can be motivated by aspects of social life (e.g., approval from others) to guide decision-making in everyday contexts. Indeed, a common view is that people may have stronger orientation toward social goals or incentives relative to other incentive modalities, such as food or money. However, current studies have only rarely addressed how social incentives compare to other types of rewards in motivating goal-directed behavior. The current study tested this claim; across two separate experiments, the effects of liquid and social incentives were compared in terms of their subsequent impact on task performance and self-reported affect and motivation. Critically, valenced social incentives offered both ecological validity (short video clips-Experiment 1) and continuity with prior stimuli used in the social reward and motivation literature (static images-Experiment 2) when examining their effect on behavior. Across both studies, the results replicate and extend prior work, demonstrating robust effects of liquid incentives on task performance and self-reported affect and motivation, while also supporting an interpretation of weaker motivational and affective effects for social incentives. These patterns of results highlight the complex and wide-ranging effects of social incentives and call into question the effectiveness of social incentives, relative to other incentive modalities, in motivating behavior.
| S-EPMC7509070 | biostudies-literature
Project description:IntroductionPunishment is a powerful drive that fosters aversive motivation and increases negative affect. Previous studies have reported that this drive has the propensity to improve cognitive control, as shown by improved conflict processing when it is used. However, whether aversive motivation per se or negative affect eventually drives this change remains unclear because in previous work, the specific contribution of these two components could not be isolated.MethodsTo address this question, we conducted two experiments where we administered the confound minimized Stroop task to a large group of participants each time (N = 50 and N = 47 for Experiment 1 and 2, respectively) and manipulated punishment and feedback contingency using a factorial design. These two experiments were similar except that in the second one, we also measured awareness of feedback contingency at the subjective level. We reasoned that cognitive control would improve the most when punishment would be used, and the contingency between this motivational drive and performance would be reinforced, selectively.ResultsBoth experiments consistently showed that negative affect increased at the subjective level when punishment was used and the feedback was contingent on task performance, with these two effects being additive. In Experiment 1, we found that when the feedback was contingent on task performance and punishment was activated, conflict processing did not improve. In Experiment 2, we found that conflict processing improved when punishment was contingent on task performance, and participants were aware of this contingency.DiscussionThese results suggest that aversive motivation can improve conflict processing when participants are aware of the link created between punishment and performance.
| S-EPMC10543231 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Depression is a serious and burdensome psychiatric illness that contributes heavily to health expenditures. These costs are partly related to the observation that depression is often not limited to a single episode but can recur or follow a chronic pathway. In terms of risk factors, it is acknowledged that cognitive impairments play a crucial role in vulnerability to depression. Within this context, cognitive control training (CCT) has shown its effectiveness in reducing the risk for recurrence of depression. CCT is low cost intensive and can be provided as a web-based intervention, which makes it easy to disseminate. Despite increasing interest in the field, studies examining the cost-effectiveness of CCT in the context of depression are largely missing. Health economic evaluation (HEE) allows to inform decision makers with evidence-based insights about how to spend limited available (financial) resources in the most efficient way. HEE studies constitute a crucial step in the implementation of a new intervention in clinical practice. Approaching preventive measures for depression such as CCT from an HEE perspective is informative to health policy, fostering optimal use of health expenditures. The aim of this paper was to inform and guide researchers during the phase of designing HEE studies in the context of CCT for depression. A clear view of CCT's cost-effectiveness is paramount for its clinical implementation.
| S-EPMC10474514 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundDespite the fact that higher levels of anxiety and anhedonia in Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) are linked to poorer treatment outcomes, mechanisms contributing to these clinical presentations remain unclear. Neuroticism, impaired cognitive control, and blunted reward learning may be critical processes involved in MDD and may help to explain symptoms of anxiety and anhedonia.MethodsUsing baseline data from patients with early-onset MDD (N = 296) in the Establishing Moderators and Biosignatures of Antidepressant Response in Clinical Care (EMBARC) trial, we conducted a path analysis to model relationships between neuroticism, cognitive control, and reward learning to levels of anxiety and anhedonia.ResultsNeuroticism was positively associated with both anhedonia (standardized coefficient = 0.26, p < .001) and anxiety (standardized coefficient = 0.40, p < .001). Cognitive control was negatively associated with anxiety (standardized coefficient = -0.18, p < .05). Reward learning was not significantly associated with either anxiety or anhedonia.LimitationsExtraneous variables not included in the model may have even more influence in explaining symptoms of anxiety and anhedonia. Restricted range in these variables may have attenuated some of the hypothesized relationships. Most important, because this was a cross-sectional analysis in a currently depressed sample, we cannot draw any causal conclusions without experimental and longitudinal data.ConclusionsThese cross-sectional findings suggest that neuroticism may contribute to anxiety and anhedonia in patients with early onset and either chronic or recurrent MDD, while enhanced cognitive control may protect against anxiety.
| S-EPMC9667857 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Across the lifespan, the performance in problem-solving tasks varies strongly, owing to age-related variation in cognitive abilities as well as the motivation to engage in a task. Non-human primates provide an evolutionary perspective on human cognitive and motivational ageing, as they lack an insight into their own limited lifetime, and ageing trajectories are not affected by customs and societal norms. To test age-related variation in inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility and persistence, we presented Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus), living at La Forêt des Singes in Rocamadour (France), with three problem-solving tasks. We conducted 297 trials with 143 subjects aged 2-30 years. We found no effect of age on success and latency to succeed in the inhibitory control task. In the cognitive flexibility task, 21 out of 99 monkeys were able to switch their strategy, but there was no evidence for an effect of age. Yet, the persistence in the motivation task as well as the overall likelihood to participate in any of the tasks declined with increasing age. These results suggest that motivation declines earlier than the cognitive abilities assessed in this study, corroborating the notion that non-human primates and humans show similar changes in motivation in old age. This article is part of the theme issue 'Evolution of the primate ageing process'.
| S-EPMC7540953 | biostudies-literature
Project description:People's motivation to engage in cognitive effort is a variable which is relevant in different psychological domains (e.g., social cognition research). Despite its potential benefits, a psychometrically sound state measure of cognitive motivation is still lacking. We therefore developed the 10-item motivation for cognition (MFC) state scale based on the established conceptualization and measure of trait need for cognition (NFC). In two studies, we examined the psychometric properties of the new measure. Study 1 revealed that the MFC scale reliably measures a one-dimensional construct. Moreover, the MFC scale was related to NFC and choice of task effort in an expected manner. In Study 2, relationships with NFC, achievement motives, self-control capacity, subjective vitality, momentary affect, and choice of task effort provide further preliminary support for the MFC scale as being a valid measure of momentary cognitive motivation. We discuss the utility of the new scale in psychological research and practice.
| S-EPMC8695725 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Depressed people perform poorly on cognitive tasks; however, under certain conditions they show intact cognitive performance, with physiological reactivity consistent with needing to recruit additional cognitive control. We hypothesized that this apparent compensation is driven by the presence of affective processes (e.g., state anxiety), which in turn are moderated by the depressed individual's motivational state. Clarifying these processes may help researchers identify targets for treatment that if addressed may improve depressed patients' cognitive functioning. To test this hypothesis, 36 participants with unipolar depression and 36 never-depressed controls completed a problem-solving task that was modified to elicit anxiety. The participants completed measures of motivation, anxiety, sadness, and rumination, while pupillary responses were continuously measured during problem-solving, as an index of cognitive control. Anxiety increased throughout the task for all participants, whereas both sadness and rumination were decreased during the task. In addition, anxiety more strongly affected planning accuracy in depressed participants than in controls, regardless of the participants' levels of motivation. In contrast, differential effects of anxiety on pupillary responses were observed as a function of depressed participants' levels of motivation. Consistent with the behavioral results, less-motivated and anxious depressed participants demonstrated smaller pupillary responses, whereas more highly motivated and anxious depressed participants demonstrated larger pupillary responses than did controls. Strong effects of sadness and rumination on cognitive control in depression were not observed. Thus, we conclude that anxiety inhibits the recruitment of cognitive control in depression and that a depressed individual's motivational state determines, in part, whether he or she is able to compensate by recruiting additional cognitive control.
| S-EPMC4385505 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Dysfunctions of approach and avoidance motivation play an important role in depression, which in turn may affect cognitive control, i.e., the ability to regulate thoughts and action to achieve internal goals. We use a novel experimental paradigm, i.e. a computer simulated driving-task, to study the impact of depression on cognitive control by measuring approach and avoidance actions in continuous time. In this task, 39 subjects with minimal to severe depression symptoms were instructed to use a joystick to move a virtual car as quickly as possible to a target point without crossing a stop-sign or crashing into a wall. We recorded their continuous actions on a joystick and found that depression 1) leads to further stopping distance to task target; and 2) increases the magnitude of late deceleration (avoidance) but not early acceleration (approach), which was only observed in the stop-sign condition. Taken together, these results are consistent with the hypothesis that depressed individuals have greater avoidance motivation near stopping target, but are minimally affected by approach motivation.
| S-EPMC4659610 | biostudies-literature